Jose Mourinho may feel that he has unfinished business at Manchester United but, after leaving Roma following two-and-a-half years at the Italian giants, he might struggle to find many in the Old Trafford boardroom who agree with that assessment.
According to reports, Jose Mourinho has ‘made it his mission’ to secure a second spell in charge of the club he led to – at least in terms of silverware – their most successful season in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era.
We’ve been here before, of course; Mourinho lurking in the shadows as an embattled Dutchman fights for his future in the Manchester United dugout. Louis van Gaal then, Erik ten Hag today.
But unlike in 2016, when the former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss inherited a hotseat vacated by Van Gaal, the common consensus of Mourinho is that he is – if not quite a busted flush – then certainly a man who’s best years have been consigned to the distant past.
Jose Mourinho wants Manchester United return
In fact, Mourinho’s first – and surely only – spell as the Red Devils boss became so fraught, so downright miserable, that it had even the most adoring Man United fan considering a divorce, if only to save their broken heart from yet more sorrow.
Take Sir Jim Ratcliffe, for instance, the Failsworth-born billionaire who, on Christmas Eve, struck a deal to take over 25 per cent of his boyhood club.
“I’m a Manchester United fan really. Or was…,” a clearly dejected Ratcliffe told The Telegraph back in 2018, only a few months before Mourinho was put out of his misery and replaced by club legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
“It’s not getting any better (at United). It’s gone from bad to catastrophic. Talk about a glass-half-empty,” Ratcliffe sighed, Mourinho’s tendency to lambast his players in full view of the public engendering a tortured, toxic atmosphere both in the dressing room and on the terraces.
“And then you look at Mourinho. He’s so down. He destroyed Luke Shaw last season.”
‘Catastrophic’
If anyone could have been forgiven for sending champagne corks ricocheting around the United dressing room when the Portuguese was dismissed five years ago, it’s a the left-back who spent most of the Mourinho era seeing his attitude, not to mention his ability, questioned with a seemingly never-ending frequency.
Shaw was not the only one victim to a lashing from Mourinho’s forked tongue either. Recall those regular spats with Paul Pogba? The questioning of Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, too?
So while the 61-year-old may have his heart set on a Manchester United reunion, it’s hard to imagine that either Shaw or Ratcliffe – the man making the big decisions these days – will be quite so open to such a possibility.
from United In Focus https://ift.tt/5iBEW2g