No holds barred! Fiery Mourinho sets tone for Manchester United tenure
Jose Mourinho doesn’t do quiet entrances. Since the day he thrust the door open at Chelsea proclaiming himself to be "a Special One, not one from the bottle", he has lapped up the first sign of confrontation. And the first signs suggest life at Manchester United will be conducted very much to type.
It took him barely two sentences to launch his opening assault during his introductory press conference at Old Trafford on Tuesday, and the barbs kept dropping at regular intervals.
Nobody was safe. The media talk about his record bringing through youth players was rebuffed. Claims he’d chased out Ryan Giggs were batted off. Suggestions he had something to prove were directed instead towards Arsene Wenger. But most tellingly of all he decimated the record of his predecessor and former friend Louis van Gaal.
It is a long time now since the two worked together at Barcelona in the late 1990s, with the Dutchman promoting Mourinho to right-hand man and sometime-tactician. But having walked into Manchester without the prospect of Champions League football and the task of reviving an ailing giant, the Portuguese took several pops at the man whose legacy at United was ultimately one of tedium and failure.
"I was never good at hiding behind words and hiding behind philosophies," he stated, taking a deliberate dig at Van Gaal’s favourite description of the rebuilding job he claimed to be doing in his two years in charge. "I am unhappy that we are not in the Champions League. I can’t hide that I want to chase Sir Alex’s record of Champions League match wins."Manchester United is a Champions League club, and in July 2017 instead of waiting for the play-off draw there is one place where it has to be and that is the Champions League."
He was by no means finished there, pulling apart Van Gaal’s vision of filling his squad with adaptable players, while also ripping up the Dutchman’s work in having brought through the likes of Marcus Rashford and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson during an injury crisis last season."I am a manager who likes specialists because I am clear in my model of play, not multi-functional players. You need one or two of them over the course of a season if you have a few injuries. But mainly we need specialists.
"We have five minutes. I would need 10 minutes to answer your question," he added, taking out a piece of paper after being asked about his apparent difficulties in promoting youth team players.
"You know how many players I have promoted from the academy? Forty-nine... 49! I can give you the list if you want it. Sometimes you have to bring up the players from the academy because you have no choice because you have injuries. My record of injuries is very, very low. I didn't promote players because of a need, I did it because of conviction."
His old enemy Arsene Wenger, whose Arsenal side last won the Premier League in 2004, was also dragged into the firing line when Mourinho was asked whether he had a point to prove following his abysmal run with Chelsea last season which led to him getting the boot in December.
"There are some managers who last won a title 10 years ago. Some of them the last time they won a title was never. I last won a title one year ago. So if I have something to prove, what about the others?"This was a no-holds barred press conference all right, even if he refused to be drawn just yet on the fight that awaits him across the city following Pep Guardiola’s arrival at Manchester City. He added that Ryan Giggs was "brave" for choosing to leave Old Trafford after 29 years on Saturday, but insisted: "The reality is that it is not my responsibility is that Ryan is not in the club. The job Ryan wanted was the job they gave me. That is not my decision, it is the decision of the club, the board, Mr Woodward, whoever."
For Wayne Rooney, the warning that he will be back in the forward line come August following a brief dalliance with a midfield role for United and England in recent months.
"For me he is maybe not a No.9 anymore, but for me he will never be a No.6. He will never be 50 yards from the goal. Yes, he has a great pass but I have a great pass under no pressure."
He even ran the risk of upsetting the club’s media department by all-but confirming Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s arrival from Borussia Dortmund when drawn on additional signings besides Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Eric Bailly: "Is the third player already official or not yet?" he asked press officer Karen Shotbolt. "No". "So it will be official when?", "Soon!""We identified four players, we have two or three? Is the third official?" "Two!" "Maybe three, and when we get the fourth I can breathe. We will not get the fourth on August 31, we get him before then."
Mourinho does things his own way. He wins his own way, and that is what the Manchester United fans who have been without even the faintest hope of success for the past three years will now be counting on.
"I want to forget the last three years. We cannot say we want to do better, because better is fourth but that’s not good enough. But I am 53, not 63 or 73. I have to get better myself."
Judging by this, Mourinho is back on top form. Now he just has to back up the barbs with winning football.
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