The latest from the gutter press appears to be that Jose Mourinho doesn’t want the Manchester United job! Not until June anyway. That means that whatever happens between now and the end of the season can be blamed on van Gaal and van Gaal alone!
Could be a smart move, Jose and, then again, maybe not. What happens if United win the FA Cup and the Europa League? Remember that the team have now returned to winning ways and have just beaten a team sixty places below them who are struggling against relegation. According to Louis this was “fantastic”.
It does seem, unfortunately, that barring relegation and all the players handing in transfer requests, van Gaal will be there until the end of the season. Nobody appears to want to be called the “interim manager”.
There is also the Ed Woodward factor. He would be stupid enough to insist that van Gaal saw out his contract if he was given the slightest excuse and winning a trophy or two would pass for the slightest excuse.
It may be a long shot but consider the scenario. United win a cup, Louis thinks they are even better than whatever is even better than fantastic, Ed thinks Louis has rediscovered his mojo, whatever that is, and holds him to the final year of his contract which Louis is only too happy to go along with as he has become the best manager in the world again.
Jose Mourinho sulks off to another club, whoever that may be, having already told United the players he wanted at Old Trafford. This would not present much of a problem though, as Ed Woodward would have dithered so much that none would actually have been bought before Mourinho was in his new office, so they would still be available.
So United lose out on Mourinho and a few decent players yet again. This is deja vu on top of previous deja vu!
Now, if the sad scenario depicted earlier were to occur and United returned to losing ways next season, meaning van Gaal rediscovering his mojo was about as fleeting as an England World Cup win, what would happen?
Woodward would have to sack van Gaal because of the impossible situation HE had created for HIMSELF. Then what?
It is possible that a top manager may be available but, just before Christmas, which is the usual start of open season on managers, is not always the best time to find a successful one. There will be plenty of failures and United have already employed enough of them over the years to not need any more.
They daren’t include Mourinho again in the list of potential candidates, dare they? It is doubtful he would leave a club to join United if, indeed, he would ever consider the job again under these circumstances.
So all we genuine United supporters can do is hope. Hope that van Gaal has already agreed to go at the end of the season whatever happens on the pitch, as it doesn’t appear that Giggs is interested in the job on a temporary basis, and he certainly isn’t experienced enough to get it full time.
If this is the case we can look forward to a two or three trophy laden years with Mourinho in charge and then, probably, start the search for a new manager all over again.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 