Jose is now the ‘Specious One’

You know Manchdester Uited are in crisis when Michael Carrick is touted as their saviour.

Yes, that’s right a 35-yearold midfielder who rarely scores, hardly ever creates a goal and can’t tackle will be the answer to all United’s problems.

The irony of such thoughts when United spent a whopping £90 million on Paul Pogba (right) to rampage through central areas just a few months ago shouldn’t be ignored.

It seems to me Carrick’s best trait is not being Marouane Fellaini, a player whose presence in United’s side undermines any claim Jose Mourinho has to be among the top managers in the world.

United have landed Mourinho five years too late. The self-styled ‘Special One’ is no better than David Moyes or Louis Van Gaal. Mourinho is more specious than special these days.

In fact I’d say he’s worse than his immediate predecessors as he was given the keys to the Old Trafford bank vault in the summer and frittered the windfall away on past-it performers like Zlatan Ibrahimovic (I know he was a free transfer, but he earns more in a week than the 70,000 fans who cram into the stadium every week put together) and over-rated, over-priced headless chickens like Pogba.

Mourinho has also joined the likes of Roy Hodgson and Sam Allardyce in falling into the trap of indulging Wayne Rooney even though the England skipper’s lack of pace, passing ability and vision has now become obvious even to the likes of Watford’s honest toilers.

Rooney’s most useful role appears to be as Mourinho’s referee-baiting mouthpiece on the field of play, but even that influence is waning.

It’s hard to see what Mourinho’s gameplan is. He has assembled a slow-moving squad to compete in the fastest league in the world.

Big blokes are fine, but they need speed and power to compete. Fellaini and Ibrahimovic have neither, while Pogba has perfomed more like clumsy Kolo Toure than Yaya.

It’s going to be an awful season for Mourinho and expect more lashing out as he attempts to deflect the blame. His own left-back, Luke Shaw, won’t be the last to be blamed for the manager’s failings this season.

Having the great Pep Guardiolia stationed across the city won’t help Mourinho either.

Compare and contrast the silky smooth displays of Manchseetr City’s players to the lumbering efforts of those at Old Trafford.

Kevin De Bruyne has always been a class act waiting to flourish at Premier League, level, but in just six weeks Raheem Sterling has been transformed from a winger with the speed, but also the end product of Road Runner, into a lethal, goal-scoring, goal-creating frontrunner. Guardiola can take all the credit for this.

Incidentally Mourinho didn’t rate De Bruyne when they were together at Chelsea and sold him at the first opportunity.

Sums him up really.