It was all going so well, wasn’t it?
An admittedly difficult first season at Manchester United for Jose Mourinho ended with two trophies (three if you count the Community Shield). The final one, the Europa League, meant that United would return to the Champions League, despite their sixth place finish in the Premier League.
Before last weekend, United had only dropped two points from their opening seven league games of the new campaign. Romelu Lukaku had scored in all but one of these matches and at the other end, United had only given away two goals. Rightly so, many were tipping United to go toe-to-toe with Manchester City for the title.
And then they played Liverpool…
Despite coming away from Anfield with a point – historically by no means a bad thing in a game against their greatest rivals – United’s lack of attacking threat in the 90 minutes has seen their manager accused of pragmatism and of deliberately trying to stifle his opponent instead of focusing more on how to beat them. Perhaps amplified by City’s 7-2 victory over Stoke later that afternoon, Mourinho was all of a sudden facing criticism for his dull playing style.
Within hours of this, it emerged Mourinho had told reporters that he didn’t believe he would finish his managerial career at Old Trafford. In the same interview, given to Telefoot, he heaped praise on Paris Saint-Germain, a club he reportedly nearly joined before becoming United boss. Then came a report from Duncan Castles, claiming that United “could lose Mourinho” over Ed Woodward’s failure to offer him a new contract.
United supporters were torn. Was Mourinho fluttering eyelashes at PSG because he genuinely wanted to be their next manager, or was this all a ploy to hurry Woodward up into offering him a new deal?
According to a report from Jamie Jackson in The Guardian, it might be the latter. Despite earning £15m on his current deal with the club, Mourinho is said to be eyeing a significant improvement for his new deal, reflecting the success and stability he’s brought to the club.
Although the report does claim that PSG still admire Mourinho, who they wanted to appoint as their manager before Unai Emery was given the job in 2016, it also adds that the Portuguese is content with life at United. For now, at least…
