Five reasons why Mourinho’s tenure at Manchester United wasn’t a complete failure

Jose Mourinho has always been a divisive character. At Manchester United, he was no different. However, looking back at his tenure, it’s right to say that he did more for the club than his predecessors Louis Van Gaal and David Moyes.

It isn't the most appropriate time to say this, considering the fact that Ole Gunnar Solskjær has proved to be an instant hit at Old Trafford. With an undefeated run of 10 games, including impressive results against Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, Solskjær has shown Mourinho the right way of doing things. More impressively, he has done it with the same bunch of players that Mourinho often deemed unworthy.

Manchester United fans were a divided base since Jose’s arrival. His appointment was jeered at as much as it was cheered for, and that continued for the two-and-a-half-years of his tenure. While many praised him for bringing trophies back to Manchester, others constantly lamented about his unattractive brand of football.

Also See : Durand Cup, Durand Cup Schedule, Calcutta Football League

After all, United fans aren’t the easiest to appease.

Seeing the back of Mourinho was a sigh of relief for many fans. And who could blame them? Mourinho’s lack of tactical evolution, constant criticism of his players and club as well as his negative brand of football had become too much for the fans to take.

Let’s be clear on one aspect though — Mourinho wasn’t as terrible as the media portrayed him to be. One could agree that he isn't the best in business anymore, but he most certainly should be given a bit more credit for what he did with the Premier League team.

Defending Mourinho’s tenure at the club is a much harder task now. Nonetheless, let's talk about how Mourinho’s time at Old Trafford wasn’t a complete disaster.

#1 Trophies

Mourinho took Manchester United to Europa victory

No matter what football philosophy you believe in, it’s hard to argue about the value of trophies. They are the most definitive metric for quantifying a club’s success. France won the World Cup in 2018. But a few years down the line, not many will discuss how they played at the tournament. The world will only remember France as the winner of the 2018 World Cup.

Mourinho understood this better than everyone else. He knew the value of winning trophies. Ever since the manager announced himself on the global stage by guiding Porto to a Champions League triumph, trophies were his constant companion.

He had been a serial winner throughout his spells at Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid. That was also probably the major reason why he was hired by Manchester United in the first place — to bring trophies back home.

The man duly obliged. In his first season itself, Mourinho helped bring three trophies to Old Trafford (two if you don’t fancy the Community Shield). Under his tutelage, Manchester United won the Europa League, the only trophy that was missing in Old Trafford's trophy cabinet.

Winning the EFL cup too brought a sense of hope for the fans, who expected better things the following season.

One only needs to look across to United's neighbors to understand how difficult it is to win trophies. Jürgen Klopp has taken Liverpool to three finals. The result? All lost. Mauricio Pochettino, though doing such an excellent job at Tottenham, hasn’t managed to win a single trophy with the club.

Mourinho, on the other hand, knew well how to grind victories that are crucial in winning titles. He was a shrewd tactician who, on his day, could outshine anyone.

#2 Player development

Lingard's visible development during Mourinho's reign has been remarkable

One criticism that has always come Mourinho's way was his record with the younger players. The temperamental manager has had a bad reputation of not doing enough to develop players that are at his disposal, and instead going after already established stars who can hit the ground running.

Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Mohamed Salah are regularly used as prime examples for highlighting this flaw. But the same people forget that it was Mourinho who gave chances to youngsters like Alvaro Morata, Raphael Varane, Jesé, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Andreas Christensen, Dominic Solanke, Kurt Zouma, Casemiro, Marko Arnautovic, Mikel John Obi, Lassana Diarra, Carlos Alberto, Petr Cech, John Terry, Mario Balotelli, and many others.

At Manchester, there were fears that the arrival of Jose will impede the growth of upcoming youngsters. But that wasn’t the case. It was under Mourinho that Marcus Rashford got a high number of minutes on the pitch. It was under Mourinho that Jesse Lingard developed into a player Sir Alex Ferguson always thought he would. Such significant improvement and consistency has helped him become a crucial player for Manchester as well as England.

Then there’s Luke Shaw. After a much-publicized spat, the defender got back to performing his best again and earned himself a new contract too. One can make a case for Victor Lindelöf too, who cemented his place as the first choice center back this season.

It was Mourinho who got the best out of Ander Herrera, thanks to which he was voted the club player of the year during 2015–16. Mourinho also brought Scott McTominay into the first team and also gave a number of academy players their debuts.

#3 Club economics

United signed Paul Pogba for a world record fee

Whether one accepts it or not, money governs football. Fans are no longer the only priority for the clubs. We live in a time where sponsorship deals, social media, merchandise sales, cross-continent league matches and TV deals are pertinent to a club’s success.

Ed Woodward has done a tremendous job in making Manchester United one of the richest clubs in the world, as is evident from the club’s rankings in Deloitte Football Money League in recent years.

Mourinho is a big name manager with a high stature in the game. United’s brought him on board not as much for his style of coaching as for his success record and his own brand. The Red Devils knew they were signing a manager who can attract big players to the club, something Van Gaal and Moyes really struggled with.

The results were as expected. In the same summer when Mourinho arrived, the club signed Paul Pogba for a then world record fee. Pogba was a hot commodity then, and so his arrival gave the club’s image a massive boost. The shirt sales along with Pogba’s own brand value boosted United’s revenue.

Similarly, Mourinho’s relationship with Zlatan Ibrahimovic paved the way for the imposing player to join United on a free transfer. United also went on to sign Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan that same summer.

For a team who could only sign a certain Marouane Fellaini on transfer deadline day, this seemed like a huge upturn. Manchester United were able to attract big players even without the lure of Champions League. Mourinho was also a factor in signing Alexis Sanchez and Fred right from under the noses of Manchester City.

Mourinho’s arrival at the club opened the doorway for a lot of other high-profile signings, thus boosting the club’s image and its economics.

#4 Squad restructuring

It's popularly said that Mourinho wasn’t given the best of the squads to work with. It was an odd mixture of signings from eras of three different managers. There was a lot of deadwood too, with the squad being bereft of any identity. And one could easily put it down to frequent change of managers.

But Mourinho was at the helm of a significant restructuring. He got rid of a lot of deadwood, and signed a number of young players who will be a part of the club’s future success. Lindelöf has the attributes to be a good ball playing centre back. In Diogo Dalot and Shaw, the club have secured the full back position for at least 10 years.

While Bailly is currently a little unpolished, he is young and can develop into a good defender, as he has shown many times. Lukaku, at 25, still has plenty of time to develop into a much more lethal forward. Fred and Pogba can command the midfield for years to come and Joel Pereira could one day take over from the mighty David de Gea.

It's not far fetched to say that Mourinho left the club with a solid foundation for the future.

#5 Entertainment

Football aside, Mourinho was a great entertainer too. It was hard to compete with van Gaal’s touchline dive, but Mourinho somehow managed to outshine him even in terms of entertainment. His off-field antics, his barbs at fellow managers (Ahem, did someone say 'hair transplant'?) and even at his own players and club, his tongue-in-cheek comments, his feuds with the media and his passion made him an extremely entertaining manager.

Also, who can hate Mourinho's reaction to the Juventus fans when United nicked a win at Turin. That alone absolves this man from everything.

There's no doubt that heading Manchester United was a messy job for any manager. But Mourinho, most certainly, fared better than his predecessors.

People may be going gaga over Ole right now, but most Manchester United fans should surely look back at Jose's reign with a smile and be proud.