This season will define just how special Jose is
TO some amusement in Skopje on Tuesday night, Jose Mourinho explained why he gave away his Super Cup losers’ medal.
“I don’t even keep all my winners’ medals, so imagine...” he said.
Even in defeat, even in a lovely gesture that made a young boy’s night, Mourinho can’t help reminding everybody how much he has won. It was vintage Jose. And he is, of course, a serial winner, particularly in his second season at clubs.
In that phase of his spells with Porto, Chelsea (twice), Inter Milan and Real Madrid, Mourinho won the league title.
Maybe that is why, with the bookmakers, Manchester United are a shorter price than Chelsea to win the Premier League in 2017-18 even though they finished a monstrous 24 points behind Antonio Conte’s team last season.
On most bookies’ lists, United are second favourites, behind Manchester City, despite propping up the Big Six in 2016-17, despite scoring fewer goals than Bournemouth in that campaign.
It is not as though their summer recruitment has been spectacular.
Romelu Lukaku should prove to be an excellent signing but Victor Lindelof looks like he will need to be phased in and Nemanja Matic, while a Mourinho favourite and a solid operator, ended up surplus to requirements at Chelsea. No, the reason why many believe United will be very serious title contenders is they have a champion in charge.
Amongst his collection of honours are EIGHT league titles in four different countries.
That is a remarkable record. Special.
Yet a ninth would be the most special of all. It would remind the game that Mourinho has not become ordinary, playing ordinary football.
It was a fine achievement to win two trophies last season – only Jose counts the Community Shield – but there is no papering over his Premier League cracks.
At Chelsea and Manchester United, he has won only 22 of his last 54 Premier League games.
During that period, his teams scored at the measly rate of 1.3 goals per match.
Particularly in stern tests away from Old Trafford, United are not a particularly thrilling team to watch.
Supporters, of course, were happy with the relative success Mourinho brought and happy with qualification for the Champions League but the difference between Real Madrid and United in Skopje, in all but the scoreline, was stark.
Yes, the Super Cup remains a glorified exhibition match. Yes, Real Madrid are the best club team in Europe but Mourinho was still forced into the Fellaini ploy after LIVERPOOL’S tough stance over Barcelona’s bid for Philippe Coutinho is admirable, but, now that he has told them he wants to leave, it is hard to see how Jurgen Klopp (right) can stand in his way.
In a contractual sense, he can. Coutinho has five years left and Fenway Sports Group could resist Barca’s approaches.
But how would keeping an unhappy player against his wishes sit with Klopp’s principles? This is a manager who put great store by his philosophy of having players who want to “push the train”.
“It’s about pushing the train, not jumping on the moving train,” said Klopp (right). And it’s not about wanting to get off the train. all else had failed. There is a generation of coaches across Europe playing a brand of football far more attractive than that produced by Mourinho in recent times.
Ahead of the match, Mourinho had talked about United’s grand history.
“I want the team to be on a par with the club’s history,” he said.
To be on a par with the club’s history would mean not only contending for a 21st title but playing with the adventure and panache long associated with United.
As much as it goes against his grain, Mourinho’s duty at Manchester United is not only to win but to entertain.
That is why this season, his gilded second season, is one of the most important of his career.
This season, we will find out if he is still special.