What Next for Jose Mourinho, Whose Options Look Extremely Limited?

For a time, the narrative seemed so tempting as to be inevitable. Jose Mourinho had been sacked by Chelsea. Louis van Gaal was struggling at Manchester United. Pep Guardiola had announced his impending departure from Bayern Munich and, in all probability, will turn up at Manchester City next season.

What else was there for football to do other than push the pieces into place and set the stage for Pep vs. Jose II—this time in Manchester?

How else for Mourinho to make his debut in the Manchester United dugout than against Chelsea on December 28, just as he had made his debut as Chelsea manager in 2004 against United? From a dramatic point of view, it was perfect. Too perfect, it turned out, and a month after leaving Chelsea, it’s far from clear what Mourinho’s next move will be.

After Mourinho’s dismissal on December 17, a not especially subtle courtship dance began. Mourinho announced he intended to stay in London—in other words, he was available for another job in the Premier League. That was a reminder of what he had said in 2014 when he was honoured at the Football Writers' Association’s annual dinner. “It is not a threat,” he said then, per Sky Sports. “But if you sack me, I will stay in England and go to another club, a possible rival.”

He was assuming another club would have him. Since then, Mourinho’s reputation has undergone a buffeting from which it may not recover. United likely considered him. It’s never entirely clear in football negotiations whether representatives claiming to be acting for the club actually are working for the club or merely looking to insert themselves into a deal, but there was some contact between representatives of the Glazer family and Mourinho.

Jon Super/Associated Press/Associated Press

Equally, although United seem to have taken the decision to stick with Van Gaal, there should be no doubting just how precarious his position did at one stage become. As reported by Miguel Delaney for ESPN FC, he was effectively offered an ultimatum just before Christmas.

That, confusingly, came just a fortnight after United’s CEO, Ed Woodward, had briefed journalists saying he would offer Van Gaal a new contract if he was prepared to put his retirement plans on hold when his present deal expires in summer 2017. Even at the time, that had been interpreted as an acknowledgement by United they did not expect to land Guardiola and that he would probably end up at City.

But in the end, United opted not to push through with their interest. The goalless draw against Chelsea three days after Christmas that ended a run of three straight league defeats was repackaged as a return to form, and after Sunday’s 1-0 win at Liverpool, Van Gaal is optimistically talking of closing the seven-point gap at the top of the table and winning the title.

Of course, if United’s form collapses in the second half of the season and, with it, faith in Van Gaal, United may reconsider in the summer, but they seem to have come to the conclusion Mourinho isn’t worth the hassle.

Back in 2012, United director and club legend Sir Bobby Charlton gave an interview to the Guardian in which he suggested that antics such as Mourinho's eye-gouging of Barcelona’s then-assistant coach Tito Vilanova during the 2011 Spanish Super Cup were not befitting of his club. “A United manager would not do what he did to Tito Vilanova," he said. "Mourinho is a really good coach, but that’s as far as I’d go.”

Michael Sohn/Associated Press

Charlton is nowhere near as influential as he was, which perhaps explains the willingness to consider Mourinho, but similar concerns seem to have persuaded other directors. United aren’t the only club to have come to the same conclusion.

“Mourinho is a winner, but in order to win he guarantees a level of tension that becomes a problem,” said the City CEO Ferran Soriano, who was part of the process that elected Guardiola over Mourinho at Barcelona in 2008, in his book Goal: The Ball Doesn’t Go In By Chance: Management Ideas from the World of Football.

Where, then, could he realistically go? Mourinho’s preference for England is clear. United is a remote possibility, but it remains more likely than most Premier League clubs. City are wedded to a "holistic" approach that leaves no space for an awkward maverick like Mourinho, even if Guardiola doesn’t end up there.

Arsene Wenger may not have too much longer left at Arsenal, but it’s hard to imagine an organisation that has seemed more concerned with profit than trophies going for such a disruptive presence.

Maybe he would drop below the recent big four, but Tottenham Hotspur, like Arsenal, have made a virtue of financial caution and probably wouldn’t want a boat-rocker, particularly not Mourinho, who tends to leave a certain toxicity on his exit. Liverpool? Perhaps if the Jurgen Klopp revolution fails dramatically, their owners would be prepared to gamble. But it’s not clear whether, with all the antipathy surrounding the Champions League semi-final in 2005 and the Ghost Goal, Liverpool fans would accept Mourinho.

What of superclubs abroad? Paris Saint-Germain are seemingly on the verge of offering Laurent Blanc a new contract. Bayern’s hierarchy were thought too troubled by Mournho’s reputation even before his comment at the end of last season that the kitman could win the league in Germany, relayed by Goal. His bridges with Barcelona are well and truly burned, and Real Madrid’s decision to appoint Zinedine Zidane to replace Rafa Benitez in January suggested they aren’t desperate to renew vows any time soon.

There’s little sign of Juventus parting company with Max Allegri ,and Mourinho has few allies in Italy after his sulphurous time at Internazionale.

So what does that leave? Atletico Madrid, perhaps, if that job is opened up by a Diego Simeone move to Chelsea in the summer. Porto sacked coach Julen Lopetegui on January 8, but a return there would seem a huge step down. Mourinho, though, is in an odd position: too gifted for anything but the elite but too combustible for the elite to take a chance on him. Perhaps he will end up back at Chelsea for a third stint.

Perhaps, then, the future is a job at international level. He has spoken of managing both Portugal and England, including this interview with RMC Sport (h/t BBC), and it’s conceivable both jobs will be free after the European Championship in the summer.

Or perhaps the best outcome would be to end up at the equivalent of Chelsea in 2004—a team newly empowered with unanticipated riches, so desperate for success the style of football isn’t going to worry it unduly. Barring an unseen billionaire suddenly descending on a club, perhaps the only side that matches that description is West Ham United, who this summer move into the Olympic Stadium.

It seems unlikely, but there aren’t many plausible alternatives.