The frustration of Mourinho
Around the Manchester United camp this summer some are now actively stepping out of Jose Mourinho’s way, as he cuts such a frustrated figure looking for answers he’s not getting. The questions he’s asking are the same as ever, but the urgency has changed, as has the tone. Who are United going to actually sign, and when? And — something that is now a source of almost more irritation for Mourinho, because of how it is increasingly connected to the first — who are they going to sell, and when?
“Everything is really bad,” the Portuguese said last week — not least his mood and that around the club. That could change if Mourinho gets the answers he’s looking for, but the bigger questions hanging over the Portuguese’s reign will surely persist. The first line of enquiry is the way this frustrating pre-season is now being framed, and how much can be read into any pre-season.
Is the theory of his troubled third season true? Is he stuck in this cycle, and thereby stuck in the past as a manager? The 2018-19 season will essentially serve as a referendum on all of this. The question is itself worth a much grander debate but, for the moment, it is impossible not to notice there are many parallels with another key Mourinho pre-season. It was at a different place, but the same timescale: that third pre-season in that second spell at Chelsea. Just like then, actual match performances this time round have been poor and uninspiring, and have thus been supplemented by the manager’s moans about transfers. Just like then, too, mind, it’s equally impossible not to accept Mourinho has a considerable point. He has made specific requests regarding transfers for the last few windows, and the club has only occasionally seen them through.
One thing they haven’t really seen through at all is sales, something that is causing Mourinho all the more hassle given how that affects budget and how honed he wants his squad. There are around seven players he has wanted rid of for a few windows now that are still there, and look like they will remain. This just doesn’t suit the efficiency Mourinho tries to instil in his squad. On the other side, Ivan Perisic’s explosion in the World Cup only serves to highlight the manager’s understandable irritation as regards purchases.
United didn’t get him for the difference of a few million last summer, and the Croatian is now valued at so much more, having proved precisely how his style could make a difference for Mourinho’s system. The fact Perisic will turn 30 in a week means United naturally won’t pay up for him now, but that approach doesn’t quite extend to someone who just turned 29 a week ago in Gareth Bale.
That’s because of the Real Madrid forward’s “star” power and that still reflects a lot about how muddled United’s approach seems to be. A common source of irritation for Mourinho has been how the club so often pursues players of certain “names”, rather than those of certain qualities that he wants. Had they actually completed a deal for Cristiano Ronaldo, for example — although that was never considered realistic this summer — the manager wouldn’t have expected the funds for it to come out of his budget.
Mourinho wants a winger like Willian or Perisic — or even Ante Rebic — as well as an experienced centre-half, but is seeing nothing really coming through in any area. He has grown so exasperated regarding defenders that sources say he has even been considering adding to his list of targets Gary Cahill — once a brilliant lieutenant for him but now a player who has shown signs of decline. And this is also where the question comes in about Mourinho’s own possible decline, over whether the spark has gone — and not just in this window.
“Everything is really bad,” the Portuguese said last week — not least his mood and that around the club. That could change if Mourinho gets the answers he’s looking for, but the bigger questions hanging over the Portuguese’s reign will surely persist. The first line of enquiry is the way this frustrating pre-season is now being framed, and how much can be read into any pre-season.
Is the theory of his troubled third season true? Is he stuck in this cycle, and thereby stuck in the past as a manager? The 2018-19 season will essentially serve as a referendum on all of this. The question is itself worth a much grander debate but, for the moment, it is impossible not to notice there are many parallels with another key Mourinho pre-season. It was at a different place, but the same timescale: that third pre-season in that second spell at Chelsea. Just like then, actual match performances this time round have been poor and uninspiring, and have thus been supplemented by the manager’s moans about transfers. Just like then, too, mind, it’s equally impossible not to accept Mourinho has a considerable point. He has made specific requests regarding transfers for the last few windows, and the club has only occasionally seen them through.
One thing they haven’t really seen through at all is sales, something that is causing Mourinho all the more hassle given how that affects budget and how honed he wants his squad. There are around seven players he has wanted rid of for a few windows now that are still there, and look like they will remain. This just doesn’t suit the efficiency Mourinho tries to instil in his squad. On the other side, Ivan Perisic’s explosion in the World Cup only serves to highlight the manager’s understandable irritation as regards purchases.
United didn’t get him for the difference of a few million last summer, and the Croatian is now valued at so much more, having proved precisely how his style could make a difference for Mourinho’s system. The fact Perisic will turn 30 in a week means United naturally won’t pay up for him now, but that approach doesn’t quite extend to someone who just turned 29 a week ago in Gareth Bale.
That’s because of the Real Madrid forward’s “star” power and that still reflects a lot about how muddled United’s approach seems to be. A common source of irritation for Mourinho has been how the club so often pursues players of certain “names”, rather than those of certain qualities that he wants. Had they actually completed a deal for Cristiano Ronaldo, for example — although that was never considered realistic this summer — the manager wouldn’t have expected the funds for it to come out of his budget.
Mourinho wants a winger like Willian or Perisic — or even Ante Rebic — as well as an experienced centre-half, but is seeing nothing really coming through in any area. He has grown so exasperated regarding defenders that sources say he has even been considering adding to his list of targets Gary Cahill — once a brilliant lieutenant for him but now a player who has shown signs of decline. And this is also where the question comes in about Mourinho’s own possible decline, over whether the spark has gone — and not just in this window.