United in need of a rethink
Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United soap opera came to an abrupt end on Tuesday, but not before his arch-nemesis Paul Pogba interrupted the closing credits with a smirking aside to camera, accompanied by the message “Caption this”.
Former United midfielder Gary Neville summed up what many fans were thinking when he entered the Instagram caption competition with the spiky reply: “You can do one as well.”
Neville’s potshot was the sort of thing his former boss Alex Ferguson might have barked just before he kicked a boot in David Beckham’s direction during a particularly tense dressing-room dressing-down in 2003, famously grazing the limelight-loving midfielder’s eye.
By the summer of that year, “Golden Balls” was a goner, with Ferguson content to let brand Beckham boost jersey sales at Real Madrid, having concluded his onceprized asset had let his “application level drop from its traditionally stratospheric level”, as the Scot put it in his autobiography.
Beckham was not the only big name to fall victim to Ferguson’s ruthless streak, with the likes of Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy all unceremoniously shown the door after being deemed detrimental to the manager’s authority.
How Mourinho would have loved to been able to wield similar power and overrule United executive vicechairman Ed Woodward’s decision to keep the underperforming Pogba, not to mention his sulking compatriot, striker Anthony Martial.
Much of the criticism leveled at Mourinho during his admittedly mediocre reign has centered on his inability to coax the best from World Cup winner Pogba. The Portuguese boss has generally been portrayed as a surly and irrational figure in the whole drama; the benched Pogba cast as the gifted midfielder wronged by his manager’s foolhardy faith in his defensive principles.
Ferguson, though, it seems shared Mourinho’s distrust of the France international. While acknowledging the player’s ability during his first stint at United, the two-time Champions League winner was far from impressed when the then 19-yearold left for Juventus.
“I don’t think he showed us any respect at all,” Ferguson said of Pogba’s exit at the time. “I’m quite happy that if they (players) carry on that way, they’re probably better doing it away from us.”
It is, of course, highly debatable whether getting rid of Pogba last summer would have changed Mourinho’s fate at United.
There’s no arguing that the aura of invincibility that the ‘Special One’ exuded at Chelsea appears to now have deserted the 55-year-old, while he should have long ago figured out that his penchant for publicly berating players is not a tactic suited to the modern game and the fishbowl world of social media it inhabits.
The problems at United, however, run much deeper than the manager’s job.
The club’s tendency to pander to the likes of the marketable Pogba is symptomatic of United’s increasing focus on branding, financial results and all that entails keeping club owners the Glazer family happy, to the detriment of results on the pitch.
Since, Ferguson’s retirement, United has literally taken its eye off the ball, so much so that his work in usurping Liverpool at the top of the English game has been undone.
Yearning for a return of the days when autocratic managers like Ferguson held the balance of power at clubs is unrealistic.
However, United would be well advised to afford Mourinho’s longterm successor significantly more influence over transfers and player discipline if it is to ever properly replace the legendary Fergie.
Should that be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who was appointed interim boss until the end of the season on Wednesday, or the bookmakers’ favorite Mauricio Pochettino, we will have to wait and see.