Jose Mourinho Is Slowly but Surely Turning into His Biggest Rival, Arsene Wenger
With every blow dealt to Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United, Arsene Wenger must surely afford himself a smirk. The Arsenal boss isn’t an especially spiteful person, but considering all that his great Portuguese adversary has slung his way, it’s understandable that the Frenchman might feel a twinge of smug vindication at his struggles this season.
The Premier League’s fiercest, nastiest managerial rivalry in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era is one based on the duo’s inherent dislike for one another. Mourinho makes a point of positioning himself as the anti-Wenger, a man he once famously labelled “a specialist in failure,” per BBC Sport. He is the antithesis of the Arsenal boss, and he makes a point of reminding us of all that every so often.
However, Mourinho can no longer paint himself in such a way. While the Portuguese could once make a case to support his argument, the evidence he can provide as United manager is less than convincing. In fact, the Red Devils boss is turning into Wenger with each passing game and every reaction he gives to every disappointing result.
Sunday’s draw against Everton means United have won just three of their last eight matches in all competitions, leaving them one point ahead of West Bromwich Albion in sixth place in the Premier League table. With more than a third of the campaign now complete, the 2016/17 season isn’t going how Mourinho hoped.
However, he is doing his best to create a post-truth narrative of his own, to borrow a term that has entered the political lexicon in 2016. Time and again, Mourinho has claimed his side are playing well, even if results aren’t reflecting that. He stuck to the script once more after the draw at Goodison Park on Sunday.
“Another game with a very good performance in a very difficult place to play, a very emotional stadium against a team with very good players,” he attempted to reason after conceding a late equaliser, per Jamie Jackson of the Guardian. “We are playing very well at home, super-dominant. We are playing very well away with some amazing performances from [Phil] Jones and [Marcos] Rojo, but not getting the results we deserve. When you play bad you can try to play well. When you play well there is nothing more you can do.”
Mourinho used to mock Wenger for the way he would point to the attractive football his Arsenal sides played without getting the result to show for it; that’s what he is now doing on a near-weekly basis as Manchester United manager. The Portuguese has never boasted great self-awareness, but this is taking things to a different level.
“When my team are playing pragmatic football and winning matches and winning titles, you say it is not right and nice,” he said at Goodison Park on Sunday. “When my teams play very well, there is a huge change in relation. Now you say what matters is to get the result.”
It’s true that there are green shoots of progress starting to poke through the dirt at Old Trafford. United have been somewhat unfortunate of late, with their performances better than results suggest.
Paul Pogba is settling into the way of things following his world-record move in the summer, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan finally in the side and Zlatan Ibrahimovic again in goalscoring form. There have been glimpses of what Mourinho is trying to achieve.
But by heralding United’s performances, masking their poor results of late, Mourinho is going against the grain of his own identity as European football’s go-to guy for instant success. When United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward turned to the Portuguese coach at the end of last season, he didn’t do so to embark on another project of painstakingly slow development. Mourinho was hired to get results as soon as he walked through the door. Thus far, he has failed in doing that.
However, Mourinho has long been implored to show another side to his managerial ability. At Chelsea, he spoke about building something for the long term, forming a dynasty at Stamford Bridge in the same way Ferguson did at Old Trafford, or—as he’d never admit—Wenger has at Arsenal.
Of course, things quickly unravelled for Mourinho in his second stint at Chelsea. The dynasty he was trying to build on the King’s Road was constructed on unsound foundations, and so when the sinking started, it didn’t take long for everything to subside.
This is normally the way of things for Mourinho no matter what club he is at. No manager in football comes with such a clearly marked expiration date, with the Portuguese only ever effective for three years in charge of any given team. It was like that at FC Porto, at Chelsea in his first spell, at Inter Milan, at Real Madrid and at Stamford Bridge in his second stint.
At United, though, the Mourinho taking charge of his first season at the club looks more like Year 3 Mourinho than the Mourinho who has enjoyed instant success at every team he has previously coached. Now he must prove himself as a manager for the long term—as someone who can pick apart all the problems left for him at Old Trafford.
After all, United are likely to give him time. Having ploughed through three different managers (four if Ryan Giggs is counted) in as many years, they don’t have anywhere else to turn if Mourinho doesn’t work out. The Portuguese will get at least two seasons to prove himself as the right man for the job because there are no alternatives.
Is that how Mourinho wants to chart his time at Old Trafford, though? This is a job he spent years pining for, a job he spent a long time preparing for, and so it will be greatly disappointing to the club, but primarily to himself, if he does just enough to get by. That’s what Wenger has done at Arsenal for the past decade, and if there’s one thing Mourinho doesn’t want to become, it’s an imitation of his greatest rival.
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