Manchester United's Decision to Ignore Jose Mourinho Will Continue to Haunt Them

In the spring of 2005, I enjoyed one of the greatest privileges of my career so far: an audience with Sir Bobby Charlton.

In a hospitality box high up in the Stretford End overlooking the Old Trafford pitch, I spent the afternoon with this wonderful, humble and wise football man as he reflected upon his half century with Manchester United as a player and a director.

This was 10 years ago when United were in the middle of a relatively barren period of three years without winning the title and while Jose Mourinho was in his first season at Chelsea and on the brink of winning the Premier League.

Towards the end of my time with Charlton, I asked for his thoughts on the champions-elect Chelsea, with their array of expensive signings and impressive new young manager.

“I don’t really want to talk about Chelsea,” Charlton said. “It is their business, they run their football club how they want. It is not the way we would do it.”

Eight year later, in the spring of 2013, it occurred to me that this haughty and almost dismissive view would almost certainly have influenced the United board’s assessment of Mourinho when they came to select a successor to Sir Alex Ferguson.

In opting for David Moyes instead of Mourinho, United’s stance appeared to be that the Portuguese manager was somehow beneath them and wouldn’t do things the way they wanted.

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He was too combative, too transient, too capable of sticking his fingers in opponents’ eyes on the sidelines and, crucially, too reliant on simply spending a lot of money in the transfer market, while being wilfully resistant to promoting young players.

It wasn’t just the United hierarchy but the fans too. A strange delusion descended on much of the club in the spring of 2013.

Gary Neville, a former player but always a fan at heart, called Moyes’ appointment “a result for sanity in football," as reported by the Daily Telegraph. 

It quickly became obvious the decision to appoint Moyes over Mourinho was rather more akin to an act of insanity.

At the time, Moyes was seen to represent longevity, loyalty and the same values as Ferguson; he would respect the club’s history and traditions and provide a link to their departing manager.

But while Moyes had his merits, one crucial quality was so obviously missing: He had never been a winner.

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Manchester United decided to overlook Mourinho, winner of two Champions Leagues and titles in Spain, Portugal, England and Italy for the well-meaning bloke who had once won the Second Division with Preston North End.

For years, it was speculated at how United would handle the Ferguson succession, and now they had completely botched it.

Moyes was out of his depth and soon led United down the table from champions to seventh and out of European competition for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century.

Meanwhile Mourinho in his first season back at Chelsea finished third and stayed in contention for the title until the final week.

Manchester United had the chance to appoint the best manager in the world and inexplicably ignored him.

This remains a stunningly misguided decision, an act almost of self-harm and sabotage that still haunts them to this day.

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Last summer United attempted to rectify their mistake and stem the bleeding by appointing another established winner in Louis van Gaal but then still had to watch as they stumbled to reach fourth place, while Mourinho strolled to yet another title.

The brutal truth is if United had appointed Mourinho in 2013, they would have won the title at least once, probably twice.

At Chelsea, he inherited a team in third, 14 points from the top, and transformed them into champions within two seasons.

At Old Trafford, he would have taken control of the champions at the top of the table in 2013 and almost certainly have kept them there. 

It is often said that Mourinho’s functional and cynically defensive football would not have been accepted at Old Trafford, but this is the manager who oversaw Real Madrid scoring a record 121 goals to win La Liga in 2012 and who last season turned Eden Hazard into the Footballer of the Year.

Mourinho can play attractive football when he desires, and surely Old Trafford would have simply found winning with him attractive, especially after the drab and unsuccessful football they have had to endure without him over the last two seasons. 

Of course, Mourinho has his unappealing traits; his complaints about referees, his churlishness, his siege mentality. Remind you of anyone?

Mourinho also shares Sir Alex Ferguson’s obsessive desire to win, and so it remains a shame the former United manager failed to recognise this when choosing his successor.

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At the end of last season, Mourinho won the Barclays Manager of the Year award but couldn’t collect his trophy in person as he was otherwise engaged across London at Chelsea’s own awards night surrounded by the League Cup and Premier League trophy.

In his absence, as reported by the Daily Mail, Sir Alex Ferguson collected his award and lavished him with praise: “He's a successful man, a winner. He deserves the award…it’s going to be a very successful few years for Chelsea.” 

Having passed up the chance to bring him to Old Trafford, these words had to be spoken with a deep sense of regret.

Meanwhile, at Manchester United’s own club awards, Louis van Gaal had made an impassioned speech, which included his excitement at United’s decision to push for a second-place finish last season.

Despite the amusement value, did United fans not feel a real sense of unease at this speech?

Second used to be a dirty word at Old Trafford. It represented rank failure, and now their manager was making it his stated aim, and even then, he would miss it and finish fourth. 

This is not to suggest Van Gaal won’t bring success to United, even as early as next season, but 200 miles south at Stamford Bridge, Mourinho will be there to provide a constant reminder of who they should have appointed two years ago.