Mourinho fosters United spirit as ‘privileged’ recruits join the camp
Manager hails US base as perfect site to unite squad Lukaku and Lindelof team up with a ‘special group’
The chaos that surrounded Manchester United’s pre-season tour to China last summer has felt like a distant memory here this week as a tanned and relaxed Jose Mourinho gears up for the new campaign.
Look at Mourinho’s record at previous clubs and it is clear the second season has become his calling card, the moment he makes his move, and United supporters hope it will be no different at Old Trafford.
The Portuguese has never failed to win the domestic title in his second season at any of his clubs, including both spells at Chelsea, and at Porto and Inter Milan he also delivered the Champions League. Real Madrid’s record-breaking march to the La Liga title in 2011-12 saw Mourinho topple a Barcelona side many felt could not be toppled.
If Mourinho is to repeat the trick with United, though, he will have to make up more ground than ever before after finishing 24 points behind champions Chelsea in sixth last term. Chelsea’s Champions League involvement this time around and the absence of Europa League football for United and that dreaded Thursday-Sunday conundrum may help to level the playing field somewhat but Mourinho knows that alone will not be enough.
United will have to be much more clinical for a start, after managing just 54 goals in 38 Premier League games. But for now Mourinho is focused on ensuring his players are as well prepared as possible, a process undermined last summer by a series of farcical episodes on their tour of China which culminated in the cancellation of a derby against Manchester City owing to a shambolic pitch in Beijing. The sight of Mourinho being forced to hold a press conference on a running track at a makeshift training venue in stifling humidity, while hundreds of delirious Chinese fans rendered his words largely inaudible, is an image United’s commercial team will not want reminding of. The contrast in the US could not be starker. The UCLA campus at which United are training has become a favoured haunt of Mourinho since first visiting here with Chelsea in 2004 and subsequently with Inter and Real. Indeed, Mourinho was busy extolling its virtues on Friday after another encouraging training session on the manicured Drake Stadium pitches, where the manager has been heard repeatedly urging his players this week to “pass well”. “The facilities are very good and the organisation is very good,” Mourinho said. “Sometimes the facilities are very good but the organisation is chaotic. Since 2004, I’m still searching for the first mistake. It never arrives, it’s amazing.”
A tour of five games in five cities over 18 days would not be every manager’s wish, but as well as recognising the financial and commercial imperatives of such an exercise, Mourinho believes it helps to foster team spirit and offers new signings Romelu Lukaku and Victor Lindelof a chance to get to know their new team-mates.
“There is another factor that is really important for us and that is for the players to be together 24 hours a day,” he said. “During two and a half weeks we focus just on work and rest, know each other and welcome the new people, trying to make them adapt as soon as possible.”
Mourinho has already told Lukaku and Lindelof they are privileged to join what he describes as a “special group” and he may soon hope to add Inter Milan winger Ivan Perisic and Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic to that party.
Perisic left Inter’s pre-season training camp in Riscone di Brunico a day early, officially because of toothache, but there is a growing expectation that the Italian club are nearing a deal with United for the 28-year-old. Inter are keen to take Anthony Martial on loan as part of any package but United favour a straight cash deal.
Like the 6ft 4in Matic, Perisic, at 6ft 1in, would bring even more height and physicality to an increasingly imposing side and Mourinho’s attempts to foster unity are reflected by his insistence that the faces of every player adorn the team’s tour bus or none at all.
Mourinho’s first summer at the Old Trafford helm already seems a very long time ago. The question is whether he can maintain his formidable second season record.