MANCHESTER
Jose slept on floor of plane to be near coaches He’s scrapped LVG ‘spy’ training cameras Canteen rules ditched so players more relaxed
AFTER speaking to his players and staff yesterday, Jose Mourinho abandoned plans for a double training session. The Manchester United squad headed home after a late morning workout but nobody would have complained either way. There is a buzz about the place again, a buoyancy ahead of tomorrow’s seismic derby at Old Trafford.
It has not been felt since Sir Alex Ferguson left three years ago. David Moyes could not replicate it and neither could Louis van Gaal.
Considering the reservations felt by some people at the club over the decision to appoint Jose Mourinho, it has been some achievement by the new manager.
He goes into tomorrow’s lunchtime showdown with his nemesis Pep Guardiola with a 100 per cent record to match that of the new Manchester City manager.
Something will have to give, and the personal enmity between the two men marks this out as the most eagerly awaited derby of recent years. The fact that United are slight favourites is further proof of the successful rebuilding process overseen by Mourinho, one that can be traced back to his earliest days in charge.
Some players had yet to report for pre- season when United took off for their tour of China in July, but those on board could not help but admire the new manager’s decision to abandon his seat in business class because his backroom team were travelling in economy. The 53- year- old was found shortly afterwards sleeping on the floor of the Airbus A300.
It was classic Mourinho, a move designed to show that he was one of the boys. And it worked.
‘The players were in first class but word quickly got around what he’d done,’ said a source. ‘They could see there were no airs and graces about the new manager and that really impressed them.’
Establishing a close bond with his players was crucial to Mourinho’s success at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan, and he has worked hard to instil that same spirit at United. While Van Gaal and his coaches got changed in a separate room at Old Trafford, that is once again being used to entertain visiting managers, Mourinho having immediately moved back into the main dressingroom to be with his team.
For now at least, the man referred to as ‘gaffer’ by the English players and ‘boss’ by the foreign contingent is almost universally popular among them — even those who will have to wait for next week’s Europa League match against Feyenoord for their first action of the season.
Some who viewed his arrival with a degree of trepidation have been kept onside. Juan Mata, sold to United when Mourinho was at Chelsea, has started every game since an awkward moment in the Community Shield when he was substituted less than half an hour after coming off the bench.
Marouane Fellaini, a symbol of the failed Moyes tenure, has played every minute since Mourinho made a personal call the day after he was unveiled in July to reassure the Belgian that he still had a future at Old Trafford.
Playing Fellaini alongside new signings Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Eric Bailly has transformed United into the physically imposing team Mourinho has always favoured. United have a major height advantage over City now, and will put more emphasis than usual on set-pieces in the derby.
It is by no means the only change Mourinho has made since replacing Van Gaal. The unpopular camera system installed at Carrington to monitor the players in training, which many found to be intrusive and typical of Van Gaal’s overbearing regime, is no more.
Mourinho has always trusted the naked eye to make his own judgments.
The squad also disliked the fact Van Gaal would not let them know about training times until the last minute. Under Mourinho, it is more organised and days off are planned up to a month in advance.
While the Dutchman liked to name his team early, leaving players who weren’t involved feeling marginalised for days, Mourinho announces his line-up late to keep everyone on their toes.
Training is more varied now than the monotonous routines under Van Gaal, although Mourinho’s plans to switch sessions to Old Trafford had to be shelved following discussions with groundstaff.
The atmosphere is more relaxed, typified by the fact Ibrahimovic was allowed to bring in his own physio, Dario Fort, and other players feel comfortable approaching the Italian for massage treatment instead of going to the club’s medical staff.
The strict canteen rules imposed by the schoolmasterly Van Gaal have been abolished. Players used to have to wait for the manager to be served and were then selected to go up for their food, but Mourinho wants a more relaxed mood.
There are fewer formal team meals, with players free to sit where they want, and a glass partition ordered by Ferguson to separate the squad from non-playing staff is kept permanently open.
It was here at the Carrington canteen Mourinho dined with Ferguson and former United chief executive David Gill on July 28 on the same day he informed nine players they were free to leave.
It was perhaps no surprise that they were all young players, many of whom had been promoted under Van Gaal.
Mourinho is said to have limited interest in the academy. It is all about the here and now for him, as you might expect from a coach who has never spent much more than three years in a job.
Nothing with Mourinho is ever straightforward, though. His obsessive approach towards football in general, and first-team matters in particular, can lead to dark moods.
He can be surly and on those occasions it is his right-hand man Rui Faria who lightens things up in camp, which has surprised those who were led to believe by counterparts at Chelsea that he would be the one to fear when the Portuguese moved in this summer.
The pair have since set up home at the plush Lowry Hotel and are often seen eating out at San Carlo in the city.
Sometimes that means those outside the manager’s inner circle feel shut out. No one knows that feeling better than Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has been left to work alone with sports scientist Paolo Gaudino, and concern over Mourinho’s treatment of the decorated German midfielder extends to senior figures who believe it has not reflected well on the club.
They always accepted there would be a price to pay for hiring Mourinho, though, and so far he has proved an inspired choice.
If he can inflict defeat on City and Guardiola tomorrow, there will certainly be no complaints from his employers.