Jose Mourinho, PSG Option Grows Amid Manchester United Job Rumours

Jose Mourinho is being considered a “serious option” by Paris Saint-Germain should manager Laurent Blanc leave the club this summer.

That’s according to Matt Barlow of the Daily Mail, who suggested that doubts have emerged about Blanc in the wake of the Ligue 1 side’s exit to Manchester City in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday. Should he go, it’s claimed PSG may turn to Mourinho, who has also been linked with a move to Manchester United, per Mark Ogden of the Independent.

“When we lose I take responsibility,” said Blanc after the elimination, per Barlow. “The future is something we need to think about.”

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Barlow stated that PSG have tried to secure the Portuguese twice before, although the advances have been spurned because of the coach’s belief that French football is not competitive. However, it’s noted the club is one of the few that could afford to pay the manager the £15 million annual salary he’d demand.

Ogden claimed that while United remain interested in the former Chelsea boss, they are still “undecided” on whether to stick with manager Louis van Gaal, something which is making the Portuguese "restless." He added “United’s hopes of having a clear run at Mourinho could be compromised by the French club."

Bleacher Report’s Andrew Gibney believes there will be a lot of changes in the French capital this summer but that a new manager will not one of them:

There’s certainly been a lot of positive work undertaken by Blanc during his time in charge of PSG. Granted, he’s had plenty of money to spend on assembling this squad of players since he took charge in 2013, but the club has dominated on the domestic front. When they have their best XI on the field, they are a match for any side in Europe.

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But significant spending is inevitably accompanied by massive ambitions, and in Europe’s premier tournament, they’ve fallen at the quarter-final stage for the last four years in succession.

The French press reported that the club’s owner, Qatar Sports Investments, is not happy with the loss to City, per Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Johnson:

Mourinho, in many respects, would be the ideal manager for PSG. Not only does he have a tremendous record in terms of domestic titles, his teams always tend to make runs into the latter stages of the Champions League; he’s won the competition on two occasions as well.

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It’s a trophy the Parisians clearly crave, with the French title becoming a procession season upon season. Mourinho, as a man who knows the competition inside out and a figure who has shown he can galvanise a dressing room of big characters to short-term success, looks as good a bet as anyone to deliver this holy grail.

Author Michael Calvin thinks Mourinho will ultimately end up in charge of the French giants:

Of course, certain pieces need to fall into place for this type of deal to come to fruition. Blanc may yet keep his job, and even if he doesn’t, the prospect of another opportunity elsewhere or the apparent lack of genuine rivalry for the title in the French league may push Mourinho down a different path. Still, money talks, and the Portuguese is out of a job.

You suspect the longer United’s indecision continues when it comes to their own managerial situation, the closer the former Chelsea boss will get to Paris. It’s a situation in which one party could trigger a chain reaction should they make a move.