MONEY MAN ED IS REAL SPECIAL ONE AT UNITED
Portugal bosses eye up their favourite son Jose won’t win war with Glazers chief Woodward
JOSE MOURINHO’S precarious position at Manchester United is being monitored by the Portuguese Football Federation.
The United boss is third favourite in the Premier League sack race after firing an angry broadside at his Old Trafford bosses for a lack of new signings.
And his growing frustration has alerted PFF chiefs back in his homeland that the most successful manager Portugal has ever produced may soon be back on the job market. Mourinho, 55, has a stated ambition of one day coaching his national team. And while current Portugal boss Fernando Santos (left) was given a vote of confidence after his reigning European champions crashed out of the World Cup, if the Special One becomes available there will be pressure for that stance to change. JOSE MOURINHO is finding out that Ed Woodward is the Special One at Manchester United.
The Portuguese was seen as the only manager capable of competing with Pep Guardiola when United brought him to Old Trafford in the summer of 2016.
Mourinho approaches his third season at the helm with a snarl of contempt, following his complaints that Woodward has failed to provide reinforcements to strengthen a squad that finished 19 points behind Manchester City last May.
But there will only be one winner if Jose keeps suggesting United’s executive vice-chairman is not up to his job.
As far as club owners the Glazer family are concerned, Woodward is THE man at United.
The 46-year-old from Essex may lack the in-depth football expertise that enabled his predecessor David Gill to work perfectly in tandem with Sir Alex Ferguson to make United the most dominant club in English football.
But the former accountant and investment banker does possess the financial excellence that has enabled the Florida-based Glazers to deliver the kind of revenues to have made United the most valuable club in the world during a 13-year reign in which around £1.2billion has been drained from club coffers to service debts and pay handsome yearly dividends.
Last year, the six Glazer siblings paid themselves £23.3million.
Debt has been reduced to £304.9m – a burden that would cripple any club apart from United, now valued at £2.9bn with revenues close to £600m expected this year.
It was Woodward who advised the late Malcolm Glazer on how to complete a highly controversial leveraged buy-out in 2005, that saw debt-free United instantly plunged £660million into the red.
He joined the club two years later to head commercial operations. His record of raising revenues prompted the Glazers to ask him to step into Gill’s shoes when the chief executive left Old Trafford in tandem with Ferguson in May 2013.
Woodward presided over a disastrous first transfer window with David Moyes in which United targeted Gareth Bale and Cesc Fabregas – and ended up buying Marouane Fellaini for £27.5m.
But since then, he has allowed Louis van Gaal and Mourinho to lavish a staggering £514m on players.
Alexis Sanchez (below) banks in excess of £400,000 a week, making the Chilean the Premier League’s highestpaid player, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic was on £367,000 a week.
It is hard to argue with Mourinho’s assessment that he needs more than £53m Brazilian midfielder Fred, a teenage full-back and a back-up keeper if he is going to challenge for the title this season.
But there is a reluctance to hand the manager a blank cheque when he has failed to make the most of what he has been given. Paul Pogba, signed for a world-record £90m two years ago, has been alienated to the extent that his agent continues to offer the Frenchman’s services to other clubs.
Mourinho’s handling of Anthony Martial has also raised concerns at the club, with United unwilling to act upon their manager’s advice to cash in on the forward.
Marcus Rashford, Luke Shaw, Eric Bailly, Ander Herrera and even top scorer Romelu Lukaku got on the wrong side of Mourinho last season.
None of those issues can be blamed on Woodward, but Mourinho will no doubt once again point the finger. It won’t wash with the Glazer family.
Woodward’s ‘trophy cabinet’ includes a £750m kit manufacturing deal with adidas, a £53m a year shirt sponsorship with Chevrolet and a sleeve sponsorship tie-up with Kohler, which brings in another £20m annually.
Even Jose Mourinho can’t beat that.