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The Good, The Bad And The Mourinho

Barring the biggest surprise in football since Leicester City won the league, the Special One will be coming out to This Is The One at Old Trafford from August.

Louis Van Gaal’s tenure at Manchester United had been on life-support since before Christmas, when his lifeless side went 8 games without a win, which left them out of the title race and Champions League, at the same time as Jose Mourinho was sacked from Chelsea.

The Portuguese’s spectre has been hanging over Van Gaal and Manchester United ever since. In a way it’s almost been a good thing, as apprehensive United fans have had time to adjust to the thought of Mourinho becoming their new manager.

That’s now going to happen. But with Jose Mourinho the positives and the negatives come hand in hand, and you just have to hope that the good outweigh the bad.

Here’s a breakdown of what makes him so divisive, and why we can all be rest assured that his reign at Manchester United will be far from dull.

Proven Winner

Two Champions Leagues, three Premier Leagues, and titles in every managerial reign he’s had across four European leagues proves that Mourinho is relentless in his drive to win. Between 2003 and 2012 Mourinho didn’t go a single year without claiming one trophy, and having, mostly, thrived at Stamford Bridge he will already be fully aware of the rigors that come with playing in the Premier League, and the expectations that United will have.

Knows How To Address His Side’s Weaknesses

Whether it was the signings of Didier Drogba, Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Essien and Paulo Ferreira during his first tenure at Chelsea, Diego Milito, Thiago Motta, and Wesley Sneijder at Inter Milan, Mesut Ozil and Angel Di Maria at Real Madrid, or Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas when he returned to Stamford Bridge, Jose Mourinho has always been able to pinpoint exactly where he can improve his team and then quickly sets about acquiring the players to do so.

Mourinho will look at United’s current crop of players and know that there’s an exciting mixture of young talent, some of which have excelled (Martial, Rashford, Lingard) while others have yet to reach their potential (Depay). It will now be his job to find other players to get the best out of United’s roster, while at the same time ruthlessly getting rid of some of the deadwood, too.

Personality

Funny, glib, brazen, and unpredictable, Jose Mourinho’s ability to control the press makes him pure box-office, and the newspapers will be licking their lips just at the thought of the material he’ll provide for them.

But as David Moyes’ mousy and Louis Van Gaal’s whiny tenures at Old Trafford proved, you also have to possess the cojones and arrogance – a potent mixture – to enrapture the United fan-base, while at the same time remembering that anything other than first is failure.

Jose Mourinho will already know that, and he’ll be hell-bent on building an empire to rival Sir Alex Ferguson’s. An impossible dream? Almost certainly. But United need someone who isn’t afraid to aim for such heights, as that what the club demands.

Attitude

There’s also a darker side to Jose Mourinho’s personality that has repeatedly come to the fore throughout his career.

Attacks against referees have come off as petty and unfounded, he gouged the eye of Barcelona’s assistant manager Tito Vilanova during a brawl at the end of an El Clasico match, has become obsessed with taunting the likes of Pep Guardiola and Arsene Wenger, and goes out of his way to make his side seem like the underdog even if that means making preposterously outlandish and unrealistic comments.

It’s all added up to make Jose Mourinho one of the most divisive figures in the game, with even United demi-God Bobby Charlton previously politely remarking about his behaviour, “He pontificates too much for my liking.” That’s putting it very, very mildly.

Short-Term

Chelsea’s disintegration last season underlined a theory that Mourinho’s abrasive and intense style of man-management can’t be sustained over a long period.

At Porto and Inter Milan he was only in charge for two seasons, but he left Stamford Bridge in his fourth and third seasons at the club because of arguments with Roman Abramovich and his loss of the team, respectively, while he called his last season at the Bernabeu the worst of his career as he found himself having run-ins with his own players.

It’s now up to Jose Mourinho to try and find the formula to fix this conundrum. Otherwise his legacy could forever be tinged with this unwanted footnote, and United could find themselves looking at managerial candidates once again much sooner than they want.

Lack Of Youth

Mourinho’s 2004/2005 Chelsea, 2011/2012 Real Madrid, and, for the first half of the season anyway, 2014/2015 Chelsea sides prove that there is a misconception regarding his negative style. But what can’t be denied is his inability to incorporate youth into his teams.

Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku had to leave Chelsea to prove their talents, with Mourinho splurging on big money signings instead of giving them room and time to shine. United have a long and storied history of bringing through young players, which dates all the way back to the Busby Babes.

Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson have each come through during Van Gaal’s sophomore season and shone, and now Manchester United fans will want to see them given more opportunities.

If Mourinho doesn’t do that then United fans could quickly become peeved with their new manager, who is going to have to make adjustments to his approach in order to win over the Old Trafford masses, some of which are worried he could do more harm than good.