On December 17, 2015, Chelsea were left languishing in 16th place in the Premier League table. José Mourinho’s position was in jeopardy and reputation on the line.
Months later, he has arguably the biggest job in the world. After his disastrous attempt to retain the Premier League title, Chelsea decided to part ways with the 53-year-old for the second time in his managerial career, as matters appeared to get from bad to worse from bust-ups with the physios to losing faith in his own players – who he cruised to the title less the season before. Now the question is asked – is he still that special?
With the Premier League season weeks away, all the attention surrounds the high caliber managers arriving into potentially the hardest league in the world, with one of them being José Mourinho. With United unsurprisingly being extremely active in the transfer window, I think Jose has had a huge impact for the influx of world class players to the red side of Manchester, including Swedish giant Zlatan Ibrahimovic and former Borussia Dortmund playmaker Henrik Mkhitaryan.
Mourinho has the biggest image in football, with his controversial actions complimenting his ‘Special One’ status. As Ibrahimovic once stated, he would die for Mourinho and is relishing the opportunity to reunite with his former manager to chase the Premier League and of course, beat Pep Guardiola, which all United fans dream of. With the arrival of Paul Pogba, making him the most expensive footballer in history, there’s no chance Louis van Gaal and David Moyes would have attracted talents of this ilk and persuaded them to join their side.
Manchester United were desperate to replicate the reign of Sir Alex Ferguson after his retirement with the recruitment of Moyes, who obviously wasn’t capable of running a club of that status, with a huge jump from sixth-placed Everton to the biggest team in English football it was never going to be easy. Since Sir Alex’s retirement, United have been declining year by year, with Van Gaal getting the sack with his ‘boring’ style of football while spending staggering amounts of money in an attempt to mirror Fergurson’s success, while falling short of Champions League football to rivals City.
As Mourinho has elaborated, United should be aiming higher then achieving a top four place and should be competing for the title, which United fans haven’t experienced since Fergurson’s departure. Mourinho’s Chelsea got judged for ‘parking the bus’ after the electrifying 5-3 defeat to fierce London rivals Tottenham Hotspur on New Year’s Day, which unfairly developed an image of Mourinho’s philosophy even though his Real Madrid side achieved the most goals scored in a single season. As you know, it’s much different playing at the Bernabéu against Getafe then ‘on a wet Tuesday night at Stoke’.
Obviously, the league is much more competitive and you have to adapt your style of play to different circumstances. The real question is: will Mourinho be able to carry United for many years, in my opinion no he won’t, as its more of a temporary addition as United are desperate to compete at the top again with Mourinho being the best man for the job.
Antonio Conte, Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, the list goes on and on. With many managers joining the Premier League this has seen to become the most competitive season in the most unpredictable league, crazy isn’t it? The one advantage Mourinho has on the new arrivals is obviously experience. Pep Guardiola will be in for a shock when he faces a West Brom side managed by Tony Pulis but Jose has been competing in this league for many years and thrives the competition and how the league differentiates itself from other leagues when its very dominant, like Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga for example.
Guardiola has been rightly judged for taking the ‘easy route’ with managing Barcelona dominated by Lionel Messi and Bayern Munich where Dortmund is the only source of competition, as this will definitely be his biggest task in his managerial career and we will see how he fairs without having such a dominant squad compared to his rivals.
As we all know, Mourinho doesn’t have one hundred percent faith in his youngsters, as he’s not really given them the chance and spends wherever he goes. With talents like Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Timothy Fosu-Mensah apparently being told to find new clubs, will they regret this decision and have them turn into one of the biggest talents in world football elsewhere, like a certain Frenchman?
What is for sure is on September 10 at 12:30pm, the Manchester Derby – the first salvo between Mourinho and Guardiola in the Premier League – will be one hell of a game.
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