In 2014, chief executive Ed Woodward and manager Louis van Gaal were tasked with reconditioning English football giants Manchester United after David Moyes failed miserably in the impossible task of replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at the club. Both Woodward and van Gaal may not have succeeded, but signing former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho will not offer much solace either.
Mourinho’s appointment as the next manager of the Red Devils seems imminent. In many ways, it would be a direct response to neighbours Manchester City’s appointment of former Barcelona and current Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola, who will take the reins next season. By bringing in Guardiola, City’s billionaire owners have already made a statement: they have fast-tracked their ambitions for European glory.
From Barcelona to Bavaria
As a manager, Guardiola has the rare gift of flexibility. First at Barcelona, he enjoyed incredible success with the 4-3-3 formation, an attempt at tactical perfection through coherent pressing, balanced movement and accentuation of his players’ abilities. Under Guardiola, the Catalan giants would “triangulate” opponents out of the game. But once he shifted to Bayern Munich in Bavaria, Guardiola experimented with more than ten different formations.
Guardiola’s flexibility will ensure that he implements a holistic approach at Manchester City. And therein lies the contrast with Mourinho. The Portuguese is also an excellent curator of success, but has a myopic attitude to winning. Manchester United may seem well beyond redemption currently, but by bringing Jose Mourinho to the north of England, they may commit the cardinal sin of short-term thinking, an ubiquitous feature of the English game.
Mourinho’s expected arrival also suggests that Manchester United’s chief executive Ed Woodward suffers from short-sightedness. After succeeding the highly successful David Gill at Old Trafford, Woodward raised United’s profile in Asia with multi-million dollar sponsorship and marketing deals. In the process, he became a trusted lieutenant of the Glazer family, the club’s American owners. Today, Woodward largely controls United’s finances.
Transfer misadventures
Yet, despite Woodward’s closeness with Portuguese super-agent Jorge Mendes, who manages Cristiano Ronaldo, David De Gea and Jose Mourinho among others, Manchester United’s transfer policy has been an abject failure with Angel Di Maria, another player from the Mendes stable, standing out as a prime example.
Manchester United acquired the Argentinean winger for a staggering £59.7 million in 2014, but Di Maria’s sojourn in England turned into a misadventure. Manager Louis van Gaal blundered in altering Di Maria’s position time and again ‒ from winger to a substitute centre-forward and back again. Di Maria and his running style never fitted into the deliberate passing style that van Gaal sought to implement.
Van Gaal’s conundrum on integrating Di Maria is an example of how he has failed to find his way in the Premier League. The Dutchman is a theorist, but a culprit of an anachronistic approach: his 90’s football philosophy has congealed into lateral stagnation. Van Gaal is the subject of much derision, but his fiasco at the Red Devils should not detract from his status as an elderly statesman of the game.
The Dutchman’s current ineptitude coupled with Woodward’s incompetence in the transfer market has caused much of Manchester United’s decline. Their league position and the state of their squad underline the problem.
Mourinho the mercenary
In these circumstances, Mourinho becomes a seductive proposition. He is narcissistic, charismatic and autocratic ‒ all traits required to succeed as Manchester United boss. He can back up those characteristics with a history of forming lethal teams and a resume full of trophies. Mourinho may have peaked, but the irascible Portuguese remains a venerable choice to replace van Gaal.
Mourinho’s approach is notoriously short-term though. His entire style is a quick imposition of a deeply pragmatic game, where all players must, first and foremost, fulfil their defensive duties. His aim is to deliver silverware in a whirlwind ‒ stripped bare, the Portuguese is a highly accomplished mercenary, often limited to a three-season cycle which delivers, but lacks an overarching philosophy.
Barcelona and Bayern Munich have shown ‒ both domestically and continentally ‒ that an ingrained ideology yields more results and leads to a better performance level. At their peaks, Guardiola’s two recent clubs have shown more depth and more resourcefulness than Mourinho’s teams have ever done. Manchester United would eschew that route of profound football development by appointing Mourinho in the post Alex Ferguson era. In turn, the sheen of a swift renaissance under Mourinho would only mask the deeper debts of Manchester United’s downfall.
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