Jose Mourinho Has Manchester United Agreement Per Report
By Ty Duffy
Spanish newspaper El Pais is reporting that Jose Mourinho has a pre-contract deal with Manchester United. The club will owe him about $22 million if he’s not hired by June 1st, suggesting they likely will appoint him as their next manager after the season.
Mourinho would be the logical appointment, if the club wants to win. The 53-year-old Portuguese has been fired twice by Chelsea. He has also, in his 12 full seasons as a top-flight club manager, won eight league titles, seven domestic cups, the Champions League twice (Porto, Inter Milan), and the Europa League.
His particular talent is getting top-class players to do the mundane things required to play as a coherent, tactical whole. If style is no consideration, Mourinho seems ideally suited to United’s present difficulties. The objection would be Mourinho is not their type of manager, whatever that means.
There have been reports replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United was the job Mourinho really wanted, before he rejoined Chelsea in 2013.
Every soap opera needs its villain. It’s hard to conjure a better narrative than the dark, cynical “Special One” joining Manchester United the same year sunny Pep Guardiola arrives at City.