Mourinho's ugly United stand-off must break before real damage is done

Either Jose Mourinho has to change at Manchester United or Manchester United has to change Jose Mourinho. Because now, both of them are suffering at the hands of the other.

I have long defended Jose Mourinho, even though it has become oh-so-fashionable to reject both his footballing ideas and his personality. Tactics aside, his brilliant record and the way so many players love him is so often overlooked.

But now it’s difficult to mount many arguments in defence of his time at United, which is on the brink of descending into a total farce. Something has to give.

Mourinho could have been a wonderful manager for Manchester United. And in many ways, he was the perfect fit for a club that needed to quickly climb back to the top, all whilst being a brilliant antidote for Manchester City’s revolution under Pep Guardiola. The perfect Red Devils’ advocate.

But United wanted to do it the United way and Mourinho wanted to do it the Mourinho way. Typically, the former is a more considered and methodical approach, especially in the transfer market. Mourinho’s philosophy is about buying top-end talent and lots of it; use the best and sell the rest.

It’s not that United haven’t bought players under Mourinho (look at Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku); just not nearly enough for the manager’s liking. Instead, the board wants him to get the best from Matteo Darmian, Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo and Juan Mata, all players bought before his time.

Mourinho would sell them all if he could. It’s exactly what he’s demanded elsewhere. But United’s board have made it very clear that his priority should be about extracting the most from whatever they have. And that drives the manager mad.

The problem is that their squad doesn’t look half as potent as City, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool, a fact reinforced by the 3-0 hammering Spurs dished out to United at Old Trafford on Tuesday (AEST).

For that, the board has to take a lot of blame. And you can understand why Mourinho is upset at not being granted the resources to fight in the nuclear arms’ race that is the English Premier League.

But the way Mourinho has handled the situation, particularly in front of the cameras, speaking to millions of fans around the world, reflects dreadfully on him.

This year-long strop has achieved absolutely nothing for the Portuguese icon and even less for Manchester United. He has the right to be upset, but he also has the right to walk away.

Given that he hasn’t quit, Mourinho should be digging in as best he can or risk seeing the campaign dissolve completely. We’re only three games in but all three matches show a club that is miles off the pace, led by a man currently setting a dreadful example in public. Real damage can be done to the United brand if this continues.

Bizarrely, as much as this situation looks like a fire that needs to be put out, club and manager may actually need each other more than anyone realises.

Unless they feel the compulsion to make a play for Antonio Conte, there’s no elite manager otherwise available. Mourinho never quits a job unless there’s a guarantee of something better, so United would have to sack him, which they historically loathe to do.

As for Mourinho, who currently looks like an unmanageable manager with no obvious destination, his stock is the lowest it’s been in 15 years.

He can’t go to a club previously managed by Guardiola. Other clubs with ingrained development philosophies, like Dortmund and Atletico Madrid, also appear ill-fitting. And the rest of the top six in England have either new managers or those in peak career form.

Mourinho's reputation remains strongest in Italy, thanks to a glorious spell at Inter Milan. But even he would be reluctant to return and would think it a step down, outside of Juventus - who won't be changing managers anytime soon. Ligue 1? Even further from the spotlight, Paris Saint-Germain aside.

Suddenly, his list of destinations, at least compared to the status of his current role, has become very thin. But United’s list of alternatives is even thinner.

And yet, this nightmarish situation cannot be allowed to drag on. Something will have to alter. The question now is exactly what – or who – is going to change first.