Why Mourinho and Manchester United were made to fail

It is wholly convenient to blame Jose Mourinho for his own downfall at Manchester United but the truth of the matter is far more complex.

Jose Mourinho leaves Manchester United Source: Getty Images

This is a club, the biggest in the world by some measures, that is completely and utterly lost in the new world. 

There is not one part of the club that is functioning well, apart from their commercial arm, which continues to extract value from the market.

But that is not, and never will be, what makes United so great. 

Sacked without notice on Tuesday, Mourinho must bear some of the blame. But not all of it.

Pinning it all on him is a cheap alibi for a club that has lost all traction in the five years since they last won the league title. 

In that period, they haven’t been overtaken by Manchester City so much as lapped.

And that, more than anything else, was Mourinho’s unstated mission: don’t let the noisy neighbours get away. 

That in itself is no way to run a football club as prestigious as Man United, who should answer to nobody but themselves.

Some will claim Mourinho is out of touch. Really? In 2015, he took Chelsea to the title, eight points ahead of Manchester City. 

In his first full season in charge, Mourinho took United to the League Cup and UEFA Europa League.

In his second season, 2017-18, they finished second, four points clear of Spurs and six clear of Liverpool. 

Critics are quick to point how much Mourinho spent, and this, indeed, is problematic.

But his true failure is that very few players actually improved much under his reign. David De Gea, perhaps? A 33-year-old Ashley Young? 

The list of players who played career-best football under Mourinho, right now, is probably restricted to Scott McTominay, who hasn’t played for anyone else. 

And it was the use of McTominay that hinted at greater issues. Using him over Paul Pogba still defies belief.

The Portuguese manager made a slew of judgments that belied his persona as a razor-sharp thinker. 

At that time, Mourinho was trying to send Pogba, and the rest of the squad, a message about the kind of standards he accepted. But it was the wrong button to push.

He needed to galvanise and build-up the squad, not undermine them. A bad miscalculation in a new era of player power. 

This is not a classical Old Trafford group, forged by resilience. No, this was a cosmopolitan collection of individuals, with little in common.

It needed less of Mourinho the distant autocrat - visible at Real Madrid - and more of Mourinho the father, a common theme of titles at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan. 

Still, was the boss ever truly given enough support? No. He spent, but he wanted a move active hand in the trading market.

In the past two years, Mourinho has only been allowed to sell one player - Daley Blind to Ajax - for a transfer fee. That is staggering.

In essence, he had to keep the under-performers of the David Moyes and Lous van Gaal era, then patch on whatever else he could find.

It was a recipe for disaster, exemplified by a B-grade defence and an attack, loaded with talent but no ability to work together. It could only end in one way. 

The problem for United, more broadly, is that it is a cruise liner without a captain.

Once, that was obvious: Sir Alex Ferguson. These days, it appears that most influential man is Ed Woodward, the Glazer’s man on the ground. 

Mourinho had already won the Premier League at Chelsea and the Champions League at Porto when Woodward was working in mergers and acquisitions for J.P. Morgan.

It is understood Woodward wields close to unilateral power on all decisions now, especially where money is involved. 

But if you’re going to be canny, you have to be Daniel Levy. If you’re going to spend, be City. If you’re going to use your brain, be like Fenway Sports.

Woodward is good as any when it comes to selling sponsorships, but that should be the perimeter of his influence. 

The legacy of the messiah complex has left United in a world of pain. They need to move to a model where power and influence is spread among those prepared to honour the past and protect the future.

Bayern Munich would the stand-out example. Even as they struggle now, you know what they stand for. 

It is Mourinho’s head that lands on the chopping block this week.

But so long as United’s dysfunction continues, the next manager, and the one after that, will struggle to advance much further.