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José Mourinho can be brash. He can be dramatic. Arrogant. Self-obsessed. Defensive, on and off the pitch. He can wink and charm you one second, scowl and insult you the other. He can win almost serially by frustrating opponents rather than overpowering them. But he can also lose job after top job in the world of football. But if there was one club where he was expected to break his third-season syndrome, then it was Manchester United. Instead, after openly flirting with the job, finally getting it and winning two trophies, Mourinho was sacked on December 19 before he could finish a tragicomedy of a third season in Manchester.
The sacking was inevitable after United’s dismal loss to Liverpool last weekend meant they had made their worst start to a season in 28 years. It left them 19 points off the top of the Premier League table and 11 points behind the coveted 4th place. Players were under-performing, there was no tactical blueprint, and United looked as if in free-fall under a manager whose mood swings were worse than the English weather.
But despite all of José’s failings, the Premier League will miss one of the world’s top albeit most divisive coaches. Not just for his winning records and history, but because the Portuguese is unlike any other in terms of what he brings to the sport. This is a man who is the personification of an oxymoron. Mourinho has pulled out a bunch of statistics to prove his point many a time before qualifying it with a “People that don’t understand football analyse football [with stats]”. Mourinho has sulked for weeks, given one-word answers in press conferences before walking out of them screaming for “respect, respect, respect” — the same man who reportedly left his hotel staff in tears when he checked out one final time.
There's a lot of support out there for Jose Mourinho pic.twitter.com/9f1wYtBl6K
— Goal (@goal) December 19, 2018
Mourinho cupped his ears at the Juventus fans after a famous 2-1 win in the Champions League this season, looking like he was back to his best. In the weeks that followed, he won just one of eight matches. He kicked a case of water bottles after a winning goal against Young Boys, and even before the criticism could properly begin, quickly smiled and apologised to a kid sitting close to the dugout. Mourinho can put out a team to defend against Liverpool and Manchester City, against the traditions of Manchester United. But he can also inspire the team to come from behind and win, exactly in the style of United (2-1 vs Chelsea, 3-2 vs City and Crystal Palace). Mourinho’s power has always been to turn underdogs into winners — Porto and Chelsea fans will know that very well — but in his latest job, he has turned a club from favourites to the unfancied.
And this is exactly what confuses Manchester United fans — how could a man who is used to winning as much as they are lead the club to their most tumultuous period? Mourinho’s appointment came after underachieving seasons with David Moyes and Louis van Gaal. He was expected to turn them into arrogant winners again. They turned into meek losers. United’s fanbase, spoilt with trophies and in a habit of mocking other clubs, are realising what it is like to be the butt of the joke. In a way, it is a healthy learning process for a club which won so much in 27 years under Sir Alex Ferguson. The Premier League has opened up to new champions, rivalries and uncertainties and the fall to mediocrity of Manchester United has contributed to that.
Part of that unpredictability in the league came in huge part due to Mourinho — not just on the pitch, where his United side looked clueless, but even off it, where he seems to be a news magnet with the most mundane answers followed up with some of the most incredible one-liners. He called Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger a voyeur and “specialist in failure”. He compared young players to melons. His rivalry against Pep Guardiola (since their days in the La Liga with Real Madrid and Barcelona) spilling onto the most watched league in the world was a football fan’s dream. Mourinho going to Stamford Bridge — he won three titles there — as manager of another Premier League club, was a scene to behold. Mourinho clashing with the infuriating but vastly talented Paul Pogba was a side story that the league surely lapped up — his tendency to throw players under the bus and see how they respond is a gripping tale in itself. Mourinho has been called “the enemy of football”, but at the end of his reign in Manchester, and most probably in the Premier League as well, it turns out that he became his own enemy. The self-proclaimed Special One is surely special, and it has been a spectacular ride from that moniker to two December sackings three years apart.
“I think he sees himself as the young gunslinger who has come into town to challenge the sheriff who has been around a while,” Ferguson once said of Mourinho. While fans of other clubs rejoice, it is slightly sad that the gunslinger who wants his life to be portrayed by George Clooney failed to live up to being the sheriff in Manchester.
So, while José Mourinho’s exit is most likely good news for United, it is certainly not so for the Premier League. The biggest stages need the best heroes and villains, and Mourinho has played the role of both in fantastic style.
