WHY SAY ANYTHING?

Manchester United…..

José Mourinho has to go all out to win either the Premier League title or the Champion’s League or, best case scenario, both! The impression is that another trophy-less season might very well be the end of him and even a Carabao or FA Cup win, in isolation, wouldn’t be enough to save him.

One of his well documented problems is that, if he is not winning trophies, then his style of football alone is not enough to keep him in a job. As everybody is aware, he was sacked by Chelsea when five months into his third season back with them.

His demons begin to surface when he starts losing football matches and he tends to blame the players, physios, scouts and anybody else who isn’t him!

There has already been a hint of this trait at Manchester United when he, albeit briefly, blamed the players for not following his instructions in a match against Huddersfield. This accusation was virtually identical to that made against his team whilst manager of Chelsea when they lost to Leicester City.

This is evidence that he is lacking in the important skill of man-management, although he will never admit to it.

It’s fine spending millions on players but then, if he can’t get on with them, what is the point?

Recent examples of his tetchy nature with individuals include Paul Pogba being dropped when playing no worse than usual, Anthony Martial forever being linked with a move away, Eric Bailly not featuring for almost the entire second half of the season and even recent evidence of a trivial spat with Romelu Lukaku.

On the flip side, he began regularly selecting Chris Smalling and Phil Jones both of whom he had accused of refusing to play for the club, due to “minor” injuries, in times of need.

So why did he buy Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof if he is to continue with two very average centre backs in their place?

In conclusion, José Mourinho needs to take a look at himself, at the way he treats his players and, more importantly, the way he manages them.

He needs to spend wisely in this transfer window, (Fred would be a good start), and he needs to ship out a lot of the dead wood.

He needs to improve as a manager and win a big trophy. If he does then the supporters will continue to forgive him his little idiosyncrasies. If he doesn’t, then he won’t be in charge by the end of 2019

Manchester City…..

Pep Guardiola, on the other hand, doesn’t appear to ever have any problems with his players or maybe it’s just that Manchester City are better than United at keeping any dissenting voices within the camp.

The Spaniard seems to think that a couple of additions are all he needs to be able to defend the title next year and have a go at winning the Champion’s League.

This doesn’t entirely rule out world records being broken if he has the chance to sign Kylian M’Bappe, for example, but he is not considered to be a crucial addition to his squad.

No, Guardiola thinks that Jorginho and Riyad Mahrez should be enough to sufficiently strengthen his squad given the departure of Yaya Touré and the advancing years of Fernandinho and David Silva, who may find themselves “rested” more often than last season.

Added to any signings he may make is the fact that his team finished 19 points ahead of second-placed Manchester United in the title race so he feels that a couple of small tweaks are all that is needed.

He is right. It is the others who need a big improvement in their quest to catch and overtake City. As long as he can keep his nose, and most other things, in front of the chasing pack then the onus is 100% on them to try and do something about it!

Prepare yourselves for a closer title race between the Manchester clubs next season or a change in manager for one of them. (Probably not City).