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

#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.