United made their bed when they hired Mourinho and look ready to lie in it
Jose Mourinho believes you can learn a lot about a man from his timepiece.
A watch is, according to the Manchester United manager, “the only jewellery a man should wear” and at the end of each season in which his players win a trophy, he sets his own aside as a memento and acquires a new one. It is the winner’s medal he can wear all year round.
Rarely has Mourinho had to start a new season with an old watch but one of those few occasions came five years ago, following his defenestration from Real Madrid.
Throughout his fractious, trophyless third year in Spain, Mourinho wore the €20,000 deLaCour ‘Mourinho City Ego’ on his left wrist and its encasing was inscribed with a maxim that, though pretentious, still reveals something about his character.
“I am not afraid of the consequences of my decisions,” it read.
Mourinho could have said the very same words on Saturday night. Having just reacted to United reaching the FA Cup semi finals by accusing his players of lacking ‘personality’, ‘class’ and ‘desire’, he was asked whether such criticism might upset them.
“What can I lose?”, was his response. “I have nothing to lose in relation to that.”
The message was that either those players performing poorly improve and prosper or they sulk and continues to stagnate. If it is the former, good. If it is the latter, it will come at little personal or professional cost to their manager.
A day earlier, in that 12-minute monologue on ‘football heritage’, there was another telling line when Mourinho invoked the names of Ed Woodward and Richard Arnold, United’s executive vice-chairman and group managing director respectively.
“We are on exactly the same page,” he stressed. “We agree on everything. We know that we have a process. We agree on the investments, we agree that we have what we have.” He reiterated: “We are exactly on the same page. Life is good. I have an amazing job to do.”
Though on face-value the rant appeared to be the product of an ego bruised by Champions League elimination, this part in particular spoke of a man emboldened, one confident that he retains the support of his employers.
For when trying to understand the events of last week, it must be remembered that Mourinho’s Old Trafford tenure received the most important endorsement possible in late January when, after months of negotiation and prevarication, he was handed an extended contract until 2020, plus the option of another year.
The announcement came not long after the publication of reports suggesting that Mourinho could resign at the end of the season, as well as claims that his approach – from his complaints about the club’s spending to his commuting habits – had been received like a cup of cold sick by many in Manchester.
Mourinho dismissed this speculation in terms so strong they claimed an innocent bystander in Antonio Conte, but there could be no greater rebuttal than the renewed terms he signed just a few weeks later.
Without the security the new contract provides, more than a few minutes are probably shaved off Friday’s monologue. Maybe Luke Shaw and Scott McTominay go unnamed in Saturday’s excoriation and perhaps a dogmatic manager is forced to think of new ways to inspire hope and confidence in his team.
Instead, the latest suggestion is that eight players, acquired for a combined fee of more than £162m, could be allowed to leave Old Trafford for much less this summer. Mourinho appears to be distancing himself from his squad, secure in the knowledge he will be given the time and resources he needs to reshape it.
For now, in the words of the €20,000 deLaCour ‘Mourinho City Ego’, he has no reason to fear the consequences of his decisions. This is the bed Manchester United made for themselves when they appointed Jose Mourinho, and for better or worse, they seem prepared to lie in it.