When Sir Alex Ferguson was retiring from football management, one of the first people he told was Jose Mourinho.
The plan was to sell the idea of the Portuguese succeeding the legendary Scotsman at Old Trafford. Mourinho was keen on the idea, however, the move was met with fierce objections from a few influential people at the Theatre of Dreams.
Sir Bobby Charlton was not sold on the idea and former players like Peter Schmeichel, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs, among others also expressed their reservations about Mourinho taking charge of the Manchester United team.
Their concerns were that the defence-oriented manager will strip the great club of its magical way of playing football and turn it into a rich man’s Stoke City FC.
However, when subsequent successors to Sir Alex failed to produce the expected results, with the club in danger of going several years without winning the premiership or any major trophies, the powers-that-be decided to go for the serial trophies winner. The club was losing money and sponsors were threatening to pull out. The big bosses at Old Trafford must have reasoned that what was the point of playing fancible football without winning anything and also losing money through lack of sponsorship?
We might think Mourinho was successful in his first season at Old Trafford, because he won two trophies, but if you consider how much he spent on players, you will think winning the Carling Cup and the Europa League Cup were not commensurate returns.
It becomes even more alarming when you realise United finished the league in sixth place with a mere 69 points a massive 24 points behind winners Chelsea who were on 93 points.
If you remember also, during his last season at Chelsea before he moved to United, Mourinho’s form at Stamford Bridge was so poor that he had to be sacked.
Observers believe Chelsea were lucky to have eventually finished in 10th position that season. They argue that if Mourinho had been left in charge at Chelsea, they would have finished in a worse position.
Now, United under Mourinho may be second to Manchester City in the league at the moment, but the gap between the two city rivals is so huge that it will take a massive tragedy for City not to be crowned champions at the end of the season.
The way United play these days, you would think it was a club in financial crisis that could not attract world class players. But when you realise that the club has world class players and an expensively-assembled team, you begin to wonder what went wrong. You can’t get your head around the fact that a squad that includes Sanchez, Lukaku, Martial, Rashford, Lingard, Mata, Pogba, etc in attack will prefer to play defensive football.
The team plays with no shape and no apparent system. Since the purchase of Sanchez, it seems to have got worse. The players don’t seem to know their roles in the team. They all seem to be getting in each other’s way.
Mourinho’s excuse is that he needs more players, what a joker. Everyone in football knows that if Pep Guardiola has the same players Mourinho now has in Manchester United, he will still win the league, albeit with a lesser point’s gap.
So the question now is, has the Special One lost his magic? Has the game outgrown his tactics? Does he need a refresher course on modern day coaching and management?
We will most likely find answers to the questions at the end of this season.
Champions League coming home?
With the results this week in the Champions League, it is becoming increasingly likely that a premiership club will emerge winners of the competition this season.
Manchester City are playing fantastic and efficient football at the moment and with Pep’s experience and pedigree in Europe, they remain the premier league’s favourite to succeed in Europe. They are practically in the quarter finals now with their 4-0 first leg win over Basel. Barring an earthquake, they should make the second leg at the Etihad a mere formality.
Liverpool also have one leg in the quarters after destroying Porto 5-0. Liverpool have won the competition more than any other English club and that experience should count for something in the coming weeks.
Perhaps the most extraordinary performance of the week came from Spurs, who at 2-0 down to Juventus still managed to end the game at 2-2, getting the so valuable away points. If they can stop Juve from scoring at Wembley stadium in the return leg, they are surely going to be in the draws for the quarter final stage of the competition.
Manchester United go to Sevilla next week for their own first leg. Sevilla is an experienced club in Europe, there was a period they practically made the Europa League trophy their birthright.
United are also not playing consistently well under Mourinho so you won’t be surprised if they end losing to the Spanish club.
Another England v Spain match-up is the one between Chelsea and Barcelona. Chelsea are struggling and Barcelona are flying high in La Liga
But football is not mathematics, especially when it comes to knockout competitions. You just need to get your tactics spot on the day and have a bit of luck. Before you know it, your opponents are out and you are through to the next round.
The path to success for English clubs in the champions League became even easier when two of the favourites Real Madrid and PSG were paired against each other. Definitely, one of them won’t be in the quarter finals. Madrid are not playing really well this season, if they manage to knock PSG out of the competition, on paper, the only remaining main threat to premiership clubs in the champions league will be Barcelona . Although as we have found out several times, that may well be enough.
Barcelona are good enough to defeat every and any club they end up facing. Wouldn’t it be an interesting story if Pep Guardiola takes his new boys at Manchester City to face his old club Barcelona in the champion’s League finals in May, just after already knocking out another of his old clubs Bayern Munich in the semis?
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