Three reasons why Manchester United must sack Jose Mourinho

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Manchester United are currently in crisis, with a fallout between Club director Ed Woodward and Jose Mourinho over a failure to back the manager in the transfer market. There have also been reports of clashes between manager and player, with Paul Pogba being the chief protagonist, and the Frenchman saying he couldn’t speak about certain things out in the open to avoid being fined.

Mourinho publicly stated his desire to bolster his squad with central defensive additions and listed five players on his shortlist including Harry Maguire and Toby Alderweireld, but the club shockingly failed to sign any of his targets.

United’s defensive shortcomings were left fatally exposed in the 3-2 loss to Brighton at the AmEx stadium on matchday two, as Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof put in baffling displays at the heart of the defence, making schoolboy errors which led to all three of Brighton’s goals.

Mourinho unsurprisingly had a shakeup in his backline, not starting either of the pairs. Ivorian international Eric Bailly failed to even make the matchday squad. However, their replacements failed to make any improvements, with Smalling and Jones contriving not to offer any resistance to Tottenham’s attacks.

The 3-0 reversal at Old Trafford was the worst home defeat suffered by Jose Mourinho is his managerial career, and was Tottenham’s best result since a 4-1 victory in 1972 at a ground where they traditionally under-perform (their 21 losses at Old Trafford is the most of any club at a particular ground in the Premier League era).

The loss to Tottenham made the club reach their nadir, and would mount more pressure on Jose Mourinho. There have understandably been calls in some corners for the club to relieve the Portuguese from his duties in the dugout, and such calls are justified. Here are three reasons why Manchester United should part companies with Jose Mourinho.

#3 He has been on a decline over the last five seasons

Without an iota of doubt, Jose Mourinho is one of the greatest coaches of all time. His efforts in guiding FC Porto to an unlikely Champions League triumph in 2004 was a managerial masterclass ranking high up there with the best of the best.

He helped transform Chelsea into the super club it is now in the early years of Abramovic’s reign, helping the club win its first league title in 50 years in record-breaking style, and retaining it only a season later.

He also guided Inter Milan to a memorable treble in 2010, becoming the first Italian club to do so, and returned to Chelsea to lift the Premier League title in 2015.

With a total of 25 trophies won, including eight league titles across four different countries, Mourinho has had a Midas touch everywhere he has gone, which he is always quick to remind every one of anytime criticism over his methods arises.

However, a closer look at most of his self-aggrandizement would show that most of those successes came in the earlier part of his career.

Despite having the most expensive squad in football history at that time including two of the three costliest players in Ronaldo and Kaka, Mourinho largely failed to deliver at the Santiago Bernabeu, and did not fulfil his missions of breaking Barcelona’s dominance and winning the then coveted ‘La Decima’. His second spell at Chelsea was also solid if unspectacular in spite of the EPL triumph.

Of his 25 managerial honours, only five have come in the last five seasons, by contrast, Pep Guardiola and Unai Emery have won 10 trophies each, Luis Enrique and Zinedine Zidane have 9, Carlo Ancelotti 8 while Antonio Conte has won 6 trophies in the same timeframe. Although in Mourinho’s defence, most of these trophies were won in leagues where one club was utterly dominant as in the case with Conte at Juventus and Guardiola at Bayern. But it must also be factored in that both men lifted Premier League titles at Chelsea and Man City respectively at the expense of Mourinho with United, and also triumphed in cup finals against him, with Conte winning the FA Cup last season, while Guardiola defeated Mourinho in the UEFA Super Cup of 2013.

Mourinho is no doubt a legendary coach, but his methods have become a bit outdated, and with Mourinho’s dominance being on the decline, it would be in Manchester United’s best interest to part ways with him.

#2 To avoid falling further behind Manchester City

Manchester United and Manchester City have a very unique relationship. Demarcated by city boundaries and vastly incomparable histories, Manchester United were once the dominant team in England and looked on with smugness at their poor cousins who could only dream of being as successful as the Red Devils.

All that changed with the takeover of the club by Arab billionaire Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 2008, as access to his billions meant that United did not only get a worthy city rival but one that would soon overtake them.

United fans had to remove an offensive banner at Old Trafford mocking Manchester City by showing the number of years they had gone trophyless (35 years) following their FA Cup triumph in 2011.

Only a year later, Ferguson was made to eat his words after he had said that not in his lifetime would ‘the noisy neighbors’ win the league (after they purchased Carlos Tevez), which they did in dramatic circumstances as Aguero’s last-minute winner on the last day of the season was enough for the club to win its first ever Premier League title at the expense of Manchester United, leading to a RIP Fergie shirt being worn by Tevez during the title proceedings.

The arrival of Guardiola (who was Fergie’s prime candidate to replace him) at City has further widened the gap between both clubs, and not only is City more successful, they also play better and more attractive football than the Red Devils.

It must have been a nightmare for any United fan to watch as Manchester City made a procession off winning the EPL last season, while Manchester United lamely tagged along, finishing a dismal 19 points behind the champions.

With the club’s performances thus far, there are no signs of the gap being narrowed under Mourinho, and to avoid the nightmare of further falling behind City in the pecking order, a new narrative is needed at Old Trafford, and sadly Mou shouldn’t be the one to guide United through it.

#1 The toxic dressing room he leaves behind

One constant over the last two clubs Mourinho has coached has been the toxic nature of the dressing rooms.

He infamously had a fallout with key characters in Real Madrid’s locker room, including Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas and Cristiano Ronaldo, and reports emanated that the dressing room atmosphere was so toxic in Mourinho’s final season at the helm that there were two groups of players- those who openly chastised his treatment of club legend Iker Casillas and those who were on his side.

The situation was not much different at Chelsea where just a season on from winning the league title, relationships with his players had deteriorated so badly that he said he felt ‘betrayed’ by his players following his sack with the club languishing around the relegation places amidst rumors that the players were intentionally putting out sub-par performances to get him out.

These were in contrast to his early coaching career where he struck such a bond with his players which usually still stuck even after his departure from the club.

There are already signs of such unrest at United, as his power tussle with Ed Woodward has had far-reaching consequences, while public criticisms of Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba sowed the seeds for disharmony.

Football is a team sport, requiring commitment from all, and it is a well-known fact that nothing is achieved in football with a divided team. Hence, it is in United’s best interest to terminate Mourinho’s services before they further descend into the abyss.