If, as is widely expected, Jose Mourinho becomes the next Manchester United manager, he will take over at the start of next season.
This is the only logical explanation as to why Louis van Gaal is still there. It would appear that Ryan Giggs has turned down the opportunity to take over until the end of the season, having decided that he wants the job on a permanent basis, or not at all.
This looks like leaving him with his second option, at least for the time being so, unless Mourinho wants him as a coach, Giggs may have to leave to come back. This is not necessarily a bad thing as nobody really knows if he is up to the United job or not and, as Wilf McGuinness proved when taking over from Sir Matt Busby, a loyal ex-player is not always the best choice for the Manchester United manager’s job, particularly when it is his first managerial appointment.
This leaves United with two further options. Either keep van Gaal until the end of the season, risking further wrath from the supporters and probably ending the season trophy-less and outside the top four, or fire him now and bring in Mourinho while there is still a chance of winning the Europa League and/or the FA Cup, even finishing in the top four would be looked at with renewed optimism if there was a change of manager.
The problem here may be that Mourinho doesn’t want to take over with more than half of the season already gone. He would prefer to wait until next season when he will be able to buy players and start to build the team the way he wants it, then start with a clean slate. Also, he will be able to move on players he doesn’t want, rather than have to work with them if he took over now.
The downside to this approach is mainly in the eyes of United fans who would rather see anybody but van Gaal in charge at present. Mourinho is fast becoming the unanimous choice amongst those fans.
There would be a couple of advantages for Mourinho if he were to take over now. He would basically get a free hit until the end of the season. Nobody will blame him if United finish without a trophy but he would instantly endear himself to the doubters if he did manage to collect something on the way.
He would also get to know the players better and would, therefore, have a much better idea of who he wants and who he doesn’t want by the end of the season. There is talk of a lot of money being made available to him in the Summer so it may make sense to work with the squad for a while before deciding how to spend it.
Whatever happens we, as long-suffering supporters know that we will have no influence on it. Manchester United do not have any history of listening to the supporters. If they did, van Gaal would already be gone, David Moyes would never have been appointed and Sir Alex Ferguson would have been sacked two years into his contract.
Fortunately, Martin Edwards was a fan as well as the chairman and he knew a little about football. There was also the farcical Michael Knighton “takeover” bid at the time when Edwards was going to sell the club to a man who, it later turned out, didn’t have the money to buy it. All of these things transpired and took the spotlight away from Ferguson, to an extent, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Ed Woodward is not a Manchester United supporter, he is from Chelmsford, Essex, unlike Edwards who is Mancunian born and bred. He knows very little about football and is only interested in the accountancy side of the club. Despite this lack of experience and knowledge the Glazers, who also do not include any “soccer” experts or Mancunians in their number put Woodward in charge of football matters and, until this changes, even Mourinho is going to struggle at times working with this buffoon. Maybe he has been told that things will be different next season, let’s hope so!
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 