The summer was awash with talk about how this would be the hardest ever season to win the Premier League as Mourinho joined Manchester United, Conte joined Chelsea and Pep Guardiola joined Manchester City. They were welcomed by Klopp who was beginning to form a good team at Liverpool, Wenger who is in his 20th year as Arsenal boss and Pochettino who will be looking to improve on last season’s third place. It is literally a dream line up of management, with lots of differing tactical preferences.
However, there is just one problem. 6 doesn’t go into 4, which means two managers will miss out on qualifying for the champions league and be deemed a failure.
Pep is Pep, and doesn’t need a review. In a series of 2 articles, we look at Mourinho and Conte as they come to terms with life at their new clubs.
Mourinho
The man from Portugal divided opinion in Manchester when he joined. On one hand, his dull win at all costs style of football wasn’t in keeping with a footballing culture of exciting attacking football that runs in the club’s DNA.
But, the other overwhelming trait of the clubs DNA is that they WIN. They win leagues, they win cups, they win the European competition. And Mourinho does all of that.
He didn’t waste any time in bringing in players that he thought could help him do that. After months of teasing fans about his next destination, Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced his next club would be the Red devils. The perfect man to sign if you want to win a title, he has won 13 domestic championships in his career.
Paul Pogba became the world’s most expensive player when he sensationally returned to Old Trafford having left there for a minimal fee to join Juventus. This was a huge sign of intent by United that they were willing to back their boss. Centre half Eric Bailly joined for 30 million from Villarreal to give them some much lacking quality in defence and Armenian maestro Henrikh Mkhitaryan joined from Borussia Dortmund. Confidence was high.
Verdict – Jury is still out
Early signs suggest that Mourinho has a lot of work to do before this Manchester United team is able to challenge for a title. Paul Pogba especially has started his life at old Trafford slowly and has received a lot of criticism. Was there a reason that Sir Alex let him leave after all? Or is he just struggling with a mammoth price tag on his shoulders?
At every club he has been at, Mourinho has liked to have a core of players he can rely on. Players who would run through brick walls and do exactly what he asked of them without hesitation. He doesn’t seem to quite have that yet in Manchester and has been chopping and changing his team with regularity. Previous big money signings like Depay, Schneiderlin and Martial have recently been out of favour. And Mourinho has also struggled with Wayne Rooney, something that has become a national debate after his poor performances for his country. And this has let Rooney to sit on the bench of late.
Mourinho may need one or two more transfer windows before we see him get the best out of this Manchester United team. But the nagging doubt remains – did he fail at Chelsea because he is a yesterday’s man?