WHY SAY ANYTHING?

So José Mourinho has signed his new contract. He has put to bed all the rumours, mainly started by himself, of leaving for Paris or anywhere else for the next couple of years at least.

Unless, of course, he finds something to fall out about. If Ed Woodward fails to sign a player he wants, or sells a player he wants. If it rains too much. If certain other managers in the Premier League upset him. If a player or players at United don’t do as he says. If he gets fed up living in a 5* hotel costing more than £800 per night. If room service doesn’t deliver his breakfast quickly enough, etc., etc.

In short, a number of things could still go wrong so what difference does it make that he has signed a contract?

Well, to play the part of the cynic, (a role we are certainly not used to), if he was fired by United during the next two years he would be entitled to a very large payout. This is something which has baffled us simple souls at WSA for a number of years.

Usually when a person is fired it is because they have, in some way, breached their contract. This immediately makes the payment of compensation unnecessary unless, of course, the person fired can prove wrongful dismissal.

Yet football managers are fired all the time and always get very well compensated for being unable to do their job to the satisfaction of their employers!

Still, football is the world of the surreal where, upon entering it, ordinary morals and values cease to exist

Meanwhile, over at Manchester City…….

One of Mourinho’s fellow surreal-world dwellers has also signed a new contract. Kevin De Bruyne has committed himself to Manchester City for the next five years or, like Mourinho, until his employers get fed up with him or he just forgets how to be good,

By signing his new contract he has ensured that his paydays will continue to transfer a weekly wage which would suffice, very nicely, for the vast majority of people as an annual salary.

He has also ensured that any other club who may be interested in his services would have to pay quite a lot of money to secure them.

Not too bad considering how much criticism Manchester City had to face when they signed him, not least from the likes of “experts” such as Phil Thompson and Paul Merson. Here’s what these two founts of knowledge had to say at the time.

Down at The Emirates……

Alexis Sánchez’s name has been tippexed out on the contract about to be offered to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but Stubborn Old Man is no nearer to seeing the Gabon international scrawl his x on it.

He remains hopeful, however, that Mesut Özil will rise to the challenge of getting Arsenal back to where they once were, (still failing, but failing at a higher level)!

Özil is yet to fall for Wenger’s little ploy of offering him loads of money and, if he can secure a better offer elsewhere, he could very well do one in the summer.

Still in London and…..

Chelsea also appear to be struggling to convince Edin Dzeko to give up being first choice striker at a top club, and quit the Champion’s League, to sit next to Ross Barkley on their bench on cold February days in England. His contract also remains unsigned.

Back up north…..

Despite Jürgen Klopp being told, in a pub just outside Anfield, that Virgil van Dijk is also handy in goal, Liverpool still need to find a new goalkeeper to sign the shiny contract they have prepared for him and which will make him the highest paid goalkeeper at the club.

They don’t appear to have even made a move for one yet!

And finally……

Mauricio Pochettino, fresh from telling Stubborn Old Man to shut up, wants Lucas Moura to sign the contract he has waiting for him at White Hart Wembley.

Moura, who said he would only leave PSG to go to Manchester United, appears to be suitably impressed with the idea of playing for Spurs, which just goes to show that what you think you want is not necessarily what you want. Either that or he genuinely thought he had a chance of joining José Mourinho’s side and decided to burn the raw materials before he had even built a bridge.

Fortunately for him, nobody really noticed, so a deal should eventually go through providing Daniel Levy can get him for £10 per week, payable when Tottenham win the Premier League.