CITY Why City fans had grown to love Jose Mourinho
FOR some time, it has been abundantly clear that Jose Mourinho was the biggest obstacle Manchester United had to closing the gap on City.
Having arrived in the city held up as the answer to stopping Pep Guardiola, Mourinho moved his team backwards with every step the Blues moved forward.
To hear a man once thought of as one of the best coaches in the world declare after November’s derby that the Centurions would have been in trouble had he been able to bring Marouane Fellaini off the bench, it seems impossible to fathom that the two teams finished on the same amount of points in 2016.
City fans have grown to love Mourinho more with every botched step, and chants to Ed Woodward not to sack the manager this season were replaced on Wednesday with gleeful calls to bring him back after his shock departure this week.
This weekend the Premier League champions, Carabao Cup semi-finalists and Champions League favourites can increase the gap between the teams to 21 points with a home win over 15thplaced Crystal Palace. Hours later, a management pair on loan from Molde and Central Coast Mariners respectively (and no, that doesn’t sound any more sane after a few days) will try to start to repair the damage.
But if City have at least the rest of the season to stretch their lead, the opportunity to increase the gulf between the teams may prove more challenging.
Mourinho’s departure should highlight that they were far less than the sum of their parts under the former Chelsea coach. Alexis Sanchez and Fred were both coveted by Guardiola yet have contributed almost nothing to the Reds, while Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw are among the players that you would expect to see significant improvement in.
Even if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Mike Phelan (still no) are not the ones to extract that quality, United’s coaching options look markedly better for next season. Zinedine Zidane and Antonio Conte are said to have expressed interest in the job, and Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino’s version of resisting speculation has been to wave a big, white flag.
Whoever takes the job permanently will face a mammoth task to try to catch up with City. Whether they win the league this season or not, Pep Guardiola’s side have improved with every season they have spent together and their young squad have room to increase their potential further.
Blues can expect a bright future with the manager and most of the key players committed until at least 2021. However, Antonio Conte in 2016 and Maurizio Sarri this year have shown what kind of immediate impact a good coach can have on a talented group enough to annoy City even if they ultimately won’t worry them.
At the very least, Guardiola will expect United improvement and as such it should encourage him and his players to make the most of the mess on the other side of the city while it lasts, and work that bit harder when the new, bigger challenge comes.