Debunking Jose Mourinho's myths as he pours poison over Manchester United

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has gone out of his way to attack his players, the club’s history and the media in recent days with a succession of appearances that have been as baffling as they have been unnecessary.

In a bid to camouflage the reality that his outdated football philosophy is failing to deliver a brand of football United supporters have a right to expect from a manager who has spent more than £300m in the transfer market since his arrival at the club in the summer of 2016, Mourinho has created a smokescreen of chaos that has thrown up more questions than answers.

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Here is your Yahoo Sport guide to debunking the myths Mourinho has served up in recent days.

FOOTBALL HERITAGE

Mourinho spent much of his bizarre press conference last Friday chronicling what he described as Manchester United’s football heritage, as he suggested his predecessors in the Old Trafford hotseat are doing not better than he has done in his first two seasons at the club.

The facts suggest Mourinho is right in this assertion, yet the primary reason why this highly decorated manager is being paid a reported £15m-a-year by the most successful club in English football history is to get them back in the winning circle on a consistent basis and away from their recent failings.

Mourinho was not hired to match the achievements of David Moyes or Louis van Gaal. No, he was recruited by United to revive the glory, glory days under Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson.

That is United’s football heritage Mr Mourinho and if you want to judge yourself by the moderate efforts of Moyes and Van Gaal, you can be shown to the exit door right now.

CHASTISING HIS PLAYERS

Mourinho’s vocal criticism of his own players is nothing new.

He famously ripped into Joe Cole at Chelsea back in 2004, even though he scored a winning goal in a 1-0 win against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge and the method behind his madness is laced with peril.

The method behind his madness is a hope that chastising players in a public will produce a positive response and in the past, this unusually aggressive approach reaped rewards, yet multi-millionaire footballers are not used to being ridiculed by anyone, especially their own boss.

As Mourinho discovered at Real Madrid and especially at Chelsea, his arrogant belief that players will dance to his tune if he cracks the whip hard enough proved to be his undoing. His sacking at Chelsea in December 2015 was primarily due to his refusal to try and get his players back on side and it is surprising to see him attempting to alienate his latest squad in the same manner.

LUKE SHAW

Mourinho has been bullying his full-back Luke Shaw since he arrived at the club, with his suggestions that the 22-year-old lacks the intelligence to play at the highest level compounded by what appeared to be some kind of petty feud played out in Saturday’s FA Cup game against Brighton at Old Trafford.

The United boss spent most of the first half yelling what he may describe as ‘advice’ to Shaw from the touchline and then suggested he was ‘forced’ to substitute him at the break due to the full-back’s inability to defend or do what his manager told him to do.

It was hard to get away from the belief that this was Mourinho’s latest attempt to publicly humiliated Shaw, as he highlighted the player signed from Southampton for £27m in the summer of 2014 as the kind of second-rate signing that has undermined the club’s efforts in recent years.

If Mourinho is convinced that Shaw is not good enough to play for his team, it is pretty shoddy management to pick him from the start of a crucial FA Cup quarter-final. Maybe Mourinho’s desire to make Shaw a scapegoat for all that he believes is wrong at United was more important than the result last Saturday.

THE BRAND

Mourinho’s defensive brand of football has always been the subject of discussion and now that discussion has turned ugly.

United have been dreadful to watch for much of this season and against the Premier League’s top six, they have been embarrassing at times.

Counter-attacking football may be acceptable if you are in a charge of a mid-table team, but United fans were embarrassed by their side’s performance in defeat against Manchester City last December – when the away team had 65 per-cent possession and cantered to victory – and that trend has continued in the months since.

Not losing is Mourinho’s first objective in every game he plays, yet United fans are not interested in such negativity. They support the biggest club in the world to be entertained and thrilled by their team’s efforts to win the biggest trophies in the game.

If Mourinho does not want to embrace that ethos, and clearly he doesn’t, then he is managing the wrong club.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Mourinho insists he has no desire to walk away from the club, but his antics in recent days have all the hallmarks of a manager who is not planning a long stay at United.

If one of his players lived at the Lowry Hotel and refused to settle down in Manchester, it would be viewed as evidence of a lack of commitment to the cause and we should assume the same with Mourinho as he returns to his suite in the five-star temporary accommodation every night.

He may have signed a new contact in February, but Mourinho’s earlier suggestion that he would be tempted to spend some of Paris Saint-Germain’s money by taking over as leader of the most dominant team in French football in an interview last year suggested this nomadic manager is open to the prospect of walking away from what many described as his dream job.

Europa League, League Cup and Community Shield wins are not what United and Mourinho used to celebrate as a measure of success, but this manager has let his standards slip in recent years and now he is in danger of looking like a dinosaur in a Premier League landscape ready to move on without him.