MANCHESTER United fans still sing Jose Mourinho’s name at games. They don’t sing it when he’s not there as they do with many club legends, but they’ll roll out the ‘Jo-say Mor-een-yo’ when he’s spotted in the television studio at the back of the family stand. Mourinho soaks it up, he obviously loves it and then he waves back.
Although they’re unlikely to sing it when he brings Tottenham Hotspur there on December 4th, United fans won’t be predisposed to boo him either, to sing ‘F**k off Mourinho’ as they did during his spells at the helm at Chelsea when he was the favourite pantomime villain, though his behaviour on the sidelines could change that. Mourinho’s two and a half years in Manchester still divide United fans.
Almost nobody was sad to see him go last December and he admitted himself recently that he probably deserved to be sacked. Better than hammering your former club, but then he signed an agreement not to do that when he left and he knows that.
Twelve months, three trophies
Jose Mourinho was appointed #MUFC manager one year ago today. pic.twitter.com/zzAR6kdc5t
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) May 27, 2017
Yet the man who was recruited as the most certain guarantor of winning trophies around bagged two in his first season with two memorable cup finals. The first in the League Cup against Southampton was a stunning game; the second against Ajax in the Europa League a tactical masterpiece. He built on that by finishing second in his second season – albeit by 19 points to City in a title race United were never part of. He qualified for the Champions League from both his full seasons, but United were eight points off fourth when he lost his job. He said that the league table would look different after Christmas but he never got the chance to prove it.
There were always too many buts and his stock slid throughout 2018. He didn’t always help himself. After a horrendous performance against Spurs at Wembley in January 2018, Champions League elimination followed against Sevilla. That was a significant blow to his standing, not just because United went out but because they barely attacked Spain’s fourth-best team until it was too late in the second leg. United had beaten Juventus, Benfica and CSKA to reach that stage, too.
In 2018, let’s not forget, United reached the FA Cup Final, though the team didn’t turn up against Chelsea. That sort of spineless display had become the norm by the end of the season.
Those performances in May 2017-18 were so poor that they were only matched by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United a year later. How could Mourinho’s men who’d defeated City 3-2 away lose at home to West Brom in the next game? It was a question he probably asked himself repeatedly and seemed to have no answer to.
Mourinho began 2018-19 in a huge sulk. Pre-season was a write off with events in Michigan the nadir. There, after a 4-1 defeat to Liverpool, the Portuguese said that he wouldn’t pay to watch his United team. Even if he thought that privately, what good could have come from saying it publicly? He pissed the game’s organisers off, the 50,000 United fans who’d paid to watch their team and his bosses at the club.
Mourinho: 'I wouldn't pay to watch United..' ♂️ ♂️ ♂️ pic.twitter.com/fZAKllwMNl
— Transfer Man (@_transferman) July 29, 2018
Mourinho wasn’t happy because he wasn’t getting the players he wanted, but the club felt they’d been given mixed messages about how much he was willing to pay for players. It wasn’t Mourinho’s money but he didn’t want his name attached to signings he considered overpriced. Like Sir Alex Ferguson a decade earlier, he has clear ideas in his own mind about what constitutes value in the market. The problem is that neither Ferguson or Mourinho set the rate. Harry Maguire came to Manchester a year later. United would have paid more for him in 2017, if the transfer had been approved by Mourinho and Maguire would have been his third expensive central defender signing in two years.
Once the 2018-19 season proper started, matters did not improve. United lost 3-0 to Spurs in their second home game. Mourinho continued to appear agitated and exasperated. He’d said when he arrived that he should be judged properly after three years and his third season was turning into a partly self-created nightmare. And all the time, Manchester City were winning while Liverpool were gearing up for a serious title challenge.
I supported Mourinho longer than most, right up until the end of November when that view was in a minority. By that time, following a woeful goalless draw to Crystal Palace, he was going past the point of no return. Louis van Gaal had passed it months before he was sacked, yet he’d hung on till the end of the season. Mourinho would not.
As ever, United’s online support had been first to want a change in manager but while fans at games didn’t boo Mourinho and were even defiant in their support during an early-season defeat at Brighton and a win at Burnley, they had their standards. Still, just days before he was sacked the away end high up in Valencia’s Mestalla sang their new song to the Stone Roses’ ‘Waterfall’. ‘Jose’s at the wheel, tell me how good does it feel?’ they chanted in the cold December air. Truth was it didn't feel very good at all, not among the players or the fans. The defeat at Liverpool turned out to be Mourinho’s swan song. After two and a half years in a hotel, he moved back to his London home and he’s been there ever since, looking far happier and reinventing himself as a penetrating and personable TV pundit.
Jose Mourinho a great coach and a great punditpic.twitter.com/XNZosT3Ymi
— Omo Iya Oni PuffPuff (@Broda_Gokay) November 10, 2019
Mauricio Pochettino was the continual favourite to replace him and it was understood that the Argentine would have been happy to join United at the end of the season but didn’t want to leave Spurs mid-term – and en route to the Champions League final. So United appointed a caretaker, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but then the supposed stop-gap’s employment status took on a momentum of its own.
Ed Woodward, the man who sacked Mourinho and hated doing so, has seen him since. Jose’s been back to Old Trafford and there have been no issues, but naturally, he’d love nothing more to beat United. Suddenly a game between two clubs who’ve had worse than expected starts to the season takes on a new edge.
One thing you could never accuse Mourinho of while he was United’s manager was being dull and he won’t be that at Spurs either. His interactions with the London media who he resented bitterly after their criticisms in his final days at Chelsea will be interesting. Mourinho wasn’t a failure at Old Trafford, but nor was he the magic bullet, the leader to take United quickly back to the top that many craved, not quite the Special One of old.
