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Is there a more opinion-splitting manager in world football than Jose Mourinho? Some see him as a tactical genius, others as an uninspired dullard, others as a loveable rogue, and others as nothing more than a joke figure. Regardless of your thoughts on the Portuguese manager, there’s certainly no questioning the vast array of trophies he’s won throughout his storied managerial career.
The question we’re exploring here, though, is whether Mourinho’s time as Manchester United manager could be drawing to a close. Sure, finishing second in the Premier League to Pep Guardiola’s stunning Manchester City side last season is nothing to be ashamed of, and he has brought the FA Cup and Europa League to Old Trafford during his time there, but there are plenty of signals that suggest Mourinho’s days with the Red Devils are numbered.
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Throughout his career, Mourinho has often displayed certain traits and signs that he could well be moving on to pastures new – whether that’s him being fired or resigning – and several of those signs have ominously begun to show themselves as United get set to start the 2018/19 Premier League season.
With that in mind, then, here are five indicators that highlight why Mourinho won’t be in charge of Manchester United by the time the season comes to a close.
#5 He’s No Longer The Master Of Mind Games
Make no mistake about it, Jose Mourinho has always been a master of mind games. But maybe the Portuguese is losing his magic touch, these days.
While his days at Chelsea saw him regularly goad the likes of London rival Arsene Wenger and then-Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez, not to mention the vitriol his Real Madrid days saw him spit in the direction of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, the past few seasons have seen Mourinho’s clinical execution of fellow managers fall on deaf ears.
Sure, the former Porto boss may have managed to infuriate Antonio Conte last season, but even that came back to bite Mourinho on the backside when Conte’s Chelsea beat Manchester United in the FA Cup final. And then there are his comments, in general, these days; all designed to give the Red Devils an edge over their rivals, yet more often than not making Mourinho look like a fool when his words backfire.
Right now, it looks as if the days of Jose Mourinho’s cleverly constructed words giving him an advantage over his opponents are over – which can’t bode well for United’s chances of success this season, which in turn can’t bode well for Mourinho’s future at Old Trafford.
#4 He’s Already Trying To Deflect
Tying in a little with the concept of mind games, and Jose Mourinho has already tried to deflect the pressure of Premier League away from Old Trafford before a ball’s even been kicked in the 2018/19 season.
Over the years, many a successful manager – including Mourinho himself – has tried to take the pressure off their own team by deflecting it to a rival club. But when that doesn’t work, or if it comes across like a desperate ploy from a manager, it looks embarrassing.
During Manchester United's pre-season tour of the United States, Jose has already moved to heap pressure on Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool team. In typical Mourinho fashion, he initially praised Liverpool’s recent transfer activity, before adding, “maybe this season finally you demand they win” as he did his best to position Klopp’s Red Men as a more realistic title contender than the Portuguese’s own Red Devils.
This was a comment that also reeked of sending a message to his own board; as in Mourinho has seen Liverpool spending all of this money, signing all of these top-tier players, and the former Real Madrid manager sees himself as having his hands tied in the transfer market. As ever with Jose, there’s always an ulterior motive or two in his words – and here, he again seems as if he’s laying the foundations for “failure” not to be frowned upon should United finish behind Liverpool in this coming season.
#3 His Anger At The Lack of Signings
As of this writing, Manchester United’s transfer business this summer has consisted of signing Brazilian midfielder Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk and Portuguese youngster Diogo Dalot from FC Porto. If you’re to believe the press, though, Mourinho has been desperately trying to bring in a whole slew of marquee names for the new season.
From Cristiano Ronaldo, to Gareth Bale, to Kylian Mbappe, to Willian, to Toby Alderweireld, to Alex Sandro, and more. United have been linked with all of these world class players, yet Mourinho has been left frustrated at having – so far – been unsuccessful with bringing any of these massive names to Old Trafford. And let’s face it, when Mourinho is frustrated, he makes no qualms about publicly letting his bosses know how unhappy he is.
We’ve seen the Mourinho boo-boo face before, and it’s already reared its head this pre-season over the relative lack of transfer activity for United so far. As has been seen at Chelsea, when Jose doesn’t get his own way and starts to publicly display his anger, it is often a sign that his days at a club are dwindling to an end.
#2 Bemoaning The World Cup
Yeesh. Like, how dare his players have a successful World Cup?
With Manchester United currently under way on a US tour as part of their preparation for the 2018/2019 Premier League season, Mourinho has publicly taken a swipe at the players currently missing from pre-season training due to their involvement in this summer’s tournament.
Going one further, the former Porto boss has claimed that he will have to rest up to seven of his first-team squad for his side’s Premier League opener against Leicester City due to their exploits in Russia. Those seven are World Cup winner Paul Pogba, star striker Romelu Lukaku, the ever-inventive Jesse Lingard, lightning-quick Marcus Rashford, the age-defying Ashley Young, the ball of hair ‘n’ elbows known as Marouane Fellaini, and, err, Phil Jones.
Added to that, Jose has dubbed his pre-season preparations as “very bad”, whilst lambasting the Premier League and Sky Sports for making United vs Leicester take place a day earlier than the majority of EPL opening games.
#1 It’s That Time
Despite his huge success at a variety of clubs, Jose Mourinho has never remained in one job for longer than three seasons. Even in the cutthroat world of modern football, that’s still a remarkable stat – especially when you consider that Mourinho has had massive success in each job he’s taken on.
If the Portuguese was failing at every turn, you could understand why he’d be struggling to stay with a team, but Jose has won league titles in Portugal, England, Italy, and Spain, plus two Champions Leagues, a UEFA Cup, the Europa League, and countless other domestic trophies.
To date, the longest that Mourinho has remained in a managerial job is his 1,176 days in charge of Chelsea during his first stint in the Stamford Bridge dugout. Other than that, his FC Porto career came to an end after 905 days, his Inter Milan stay lasted 727 days, his tenure as Real Madrid boss clocked in at 1,126 days, and his second spell at Chelsea concluded after 899 days.
At present, Mourinho is at around the 800-day mark as Manchester United manager. As you can see from the aforementioned stats, history suggests that this is usually round about the time where Jose Mourinho’s time in a job starts to dwindle to an end – usually complete with a nice pay-off from his employer.
