United finally get the man with the stature and drive to revive them

WHEN Manchester United first embarked on life after Alex Ferguson they still believed they could pick a promising young manager from an upwardly mobile club and turn him into the sort of man who looked like he belonged in charge of the biggest beast in English football.

It was a commendable notion that, in the white heat of modern football, United could transform the decent, hard-working David Moyes of Everton as they once did that young Ferguson from Aberdeen, but in retrospect it is hard to believe so many of us bought it.

Three years on, and two managers down, United have finally accepted there is no point trying to restage the history of the 1980s and 1990s and a super-club needs a super-coach.

As a consequence, their premium investment in Jose Mourinho, the loudest, most outrageous, most controversial millennial modern football success story of them all. At a club which has always considered itself grand of scale, this is recognition that the demands of the job rule out all but a tiny core of high achievers with the stature and the bloody-mindedness to deal with life at United in 2016.

It is, after all, a long walk from the tunnel at the corner of the south and west stands to the seat reserved for the manager of United, and there are those who might look up at the thousands around them, or think of the millions more watching on TV and wonder whether they are up to it.

Mourinho, one imagines, would be more likely to wonder whether United deserve him than ever doubt his right to be there.

On the other side of the line the supporters will see in Mourinho a man who has been here before, who has won at this stadium, who has parked the bus at this stadium, who had the bravado to turn up once and pick a team with no recognised strikers, or, on his first visit, had the nerve to slide on the turf in celebration while Ferguson silently seethed.

In this era of unparalleled wealth, when the margins between clubs are fine and the transfer budget is unlimited, half the trick is to ensure that the man in charge has the reputation and the status to do the job.

Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Antonio Conte have it. Of the older generation so too does Arsene Wenger and now Claudio Ranieri. Louis van Gaal had it no longer. In Mourinho, United have one from that small elite who does have it.

When the greatest manager in a club’s history has also proven to be at times capable of being its biggest tyrant, it pays to ensure that the next man you ask to do the job is the same. Mourinho fits perfectly the requirement set out by one individual at the club who said the biggest failing in the Ferguson succession was not recognising that “if you lose a bastard, you have to make sure you get a bastard to replace him”.

That was always the requisite to be a great United manager, and Mourinho has the belligerence that characterises Ferguson’s approach to empire-building.

Like Ferguson, Mourinho will also expect that the rest of the club falls in line behind him and it will be interesting to see how parts of United behave under their new leader, after three years of sweet freedom.

When Ferguson left, United anticipated that they had inherited the machine that could run English football for another 20 years. Within three years, they have fallen back on the same strategy as many other big European clubs of recent years in need of success: that is, hire Jose Mourinho.

Three years ago, United considered themselves big enough to turn down Mourinho. Three years on, with the club out of the Champions League and miles off the title pace, the Old Trafford hierarchy cannot conceive of a scenario in which they would not hire him. — ©