Mourinho is creating his own storm at United
We are in the midst of hurricane season, and there is one gathering increasing ferocity around Manchester United.
Not surprisingly, the man at the eye of the storm is United manager Jose Mourinho. Many would argue that he is the one causing it. The season is barely two games old, but United are running very close to crisis, if they are not already in one. The home win against Leicester to start the campaign was a fair result, but it is last Sunday’s defeat at Brighton that has got everybody talking. United have suffered plenty of losses like this in the past, but never has their character or desire been called into question as it was here. The 3-2 scoreline flattered them. Coming two hours after neighbours Manchester City had thrashed Huddersfield, the contrast was stark. United’s summer transfer activity with the arrival of one first-team player in midfielder Fred and two squad players has been called into question. Mourinho was desperate for a centrehalf. And anyone watching Brighton’s Glenn Murray knock Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly around the AMEX Stadium wouldn’t disagree with that. The only problem is that the Portuguese signed both of those players at a cost of over £60 million. So there is no wonder chief executive Ed Woodward was reticent about paying a
massive fee for Leicester’s Harry Maguire. Yet from Mourinho’s point of view, his control is undermined if his views on new players are not considered. It’s obvious that Pep Guardiola at City and Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool have the complete support and belief of everyone at their respective clubs. There is a massive feel-good factor around both. The same just cannot be said of United. When their star player, Paul Pogba, made statements after the Leicester game alluding to things behind the scenes, you sensed trouble. The French World Cup winner pointedly talked of how he played for his teammates and the club’s fans. There was no mention of doing it for his manager. Pogba hasn’t hit the heights expected in his two years back at United after his £89 million move from Juventus. But you watch him play for France this summer and look a different player. The natural conclusion has to be that he is being stifled by Mourinho’s regime. Pogba’s agent, Mino Raiola, has tried to engineer a move to Barcelona for his man, but United don’t want to lose what they regard as a valuable asset. But if Pogba stays, what of the manager? If Mourinho remains in charge, how does that situation resolve itself? After Woodward and Pogba, next in the firing line for Mourinho was the media. That came to a head on Friday at the pre-match press conference for tomorrow night’s match at home to Tottenham. Rather than face his critics head on, he arrived 30 minutes early with no warning and was gone less than 10 minutes later after a series of brief and terse answers. It was so fast that some members of the media missed all of it! Mourinho may answer that he was fulfilling his duties, but frankly his attitude was pathetic and brought scorn on him and reflected badly on his club. So the storm clouds have gathered at Old Trafford. A resounding win over Spurs would be perfect, but it doesn’t feel like the problems would disappear. Of course, this is now his third season at United and at this stage at Real Madrid and in his second spell at Chelsea, cracks had begun to emerge. At Madrid, his Real team fell eight points behind Barcelona after four matches and the title was effectively over. The rest of the season was played out with him falling out in public with most of his players, led by Iker Casillas and Cristiano Ronaldo. At Chelsea in 2015, results were so bad and relations so fractured that Mourinho didn’t last until Christmas. The way things are going, not many would expect the 55-year-old to still be around in Manchester this time next year.