WITH two trophies in his first year, Jose Mourinho was a big success and if it wasn’t for a freak Manchester City side breaking all the records we’d currently be top of the Premier League.
By all accounts, that’s a successful side. So, why is it not a shoe-in that fans want Mourinho to stay past his three-year contract?
It’s the conflict between style and substance.
Mourinho is a manager who is more than happy for his side to sit back on a 1-0 lead and that causes huge conflict with United fans who want to see us go for the jugular and kill the game off with a second goal.
It causes even more conflict when that leads to points being dropped and it’s happened on more than one occasion under Mourinho to give the argument against his style some credence.
Of course, everything is being exacerbated by what Pep Guardiola is achieving with Man City having only spent around £50million more than Mourinho.
Were it not for City doing so well, the spotlight on Mourinho’s United wouldn’t be so intense but with City flying high and the Red Devils regularly struggling to break down teams, especially in the first half, fans can’t help but be frustrated that the power shift in Manchester is now more than just noise.
United went 40 games unbeaten at home between September 2016 and December 2017; the two games United lost either side of that record? City, both times.
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On top of that, it’s the pressure Mourinho has put on himself by being so successful.
He won the league in his second year in charge of Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid. So, United fans went into the season with a real swagger that only became inflated with the arrivals of Nemanja Matic, Romelu Lukaku and Victor Lindelof.
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Let’s not forget how well United did at the start of the season too – 32 goals in our first ten games in all competitions, nine wins and only one draw with seven clean sheets.
It was one of our best ever starts to a Premier League season and the confidence in Mourinho’s plan looked well placed.
Then cracks emerged, they’ve never gone away and the humiliation to City at home in December compounded those problems.
United fans should find it easy to align themselves with a man who adopts a siege mentality – an us against you mentality.
That was our lifeblood under Fergie – anyone but United were the enemy and Mourinho adopts that same mindset.
But, we aren’t.
There are some that can’t overlook Mourinho’s personality traits they dislike, his abrasive nature, his often publicly harsh treatment of players no matter how good United are playing.
Winning is Mourinho’s currency but winning with style is United’s.
The fact they don’t align means there will always be conflict in United’s fanbase with Mourinho in charge but ultimately, it really doesn’t matter whether fans want Jose to stay or not because if he wants to and the club does to, then he’s going nowhere.
If Mourinho doesn’t win the Premier League next season then his time at United has been a failure and we should be looking at other managers.
I really thought Jose would change at United and mute his persona so as to not rub people up the wrong way because a legacy like Fergie’s is the only thing missing from his CV.
But, a year and a half in I’ll admit I was wrong. Mourinho isn’t changing for anybody and that’s why United will more than likely move on after three years.
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