In hindsight, was Mourinho a success?

[RedTillI'mDead]

Mourinho has never been successful in a third season. This is the 4th time he has left the club. At Porto he was at the 2.5 year mark and the last of those was very successful, so that slightly bucks the trend. Anyway, the point is he is not a successful longer term manager so the third season is on our board for extending his contract

In his first year he steadied the ship, got us back in CL with a Europa win and also won the League cup. This said league form was not great with us ending 6th, but you could put that down to investing in the Europa. Given this all happened in a first season after coming 5th under LVG and with new players to bed in, this feels as much as you might have expected from any manager.

The second season we got to the FA Cup final and lost with a whimper. The CL we went out with a whimper. Similarly the League Cup. The league with us coming 2nd behind the most successful league team ever on lots of metrics is maybe quite reasonable given their financial doping.

So whilst it wasn't necessarily a success in SAF terms. Was it a reasonable return when looking at the two seasons combined?

The third half season has been a disaster no question.

Just an interesting alternative view.

No question of him deserving to go on anything like that. I simply think maybe he got the best of a bad bunch and his style simply wont bring success over a longer period.

 

[Santoryo]

Jose was a failure and left a toxic atmosphere behind him.

He finished 6th in his first season and toward the end of that season the football was already horrible. He managed to qualify for the CL through Europa League triumph which made that season barely passable.

In his second season just like his first, before December he was already out of the title race. He finished second playing some of the worst football ever seen at United and was over 20 points behind the title winners.

In his third season even before it started he'd already off sabotaging his bosses, players, squad etc. Brought in a toxic atmosphere which consequently affected the players confidence. And just like in his first and second season he was already out of the title race before Christmas. Had us playing worst football than even the already horrible football we were serving in his second season. Basically in his tenure the football got progressively worst.

It's important to mention that Mourinho was brought in to win us important titles or at the very least challenge for them and contrary to what he's managed to convince some naive fans he'd been back heavily.

But it turned out he couldn't come anywhere near close to those goals. In each of his 3 seasons he was out of the title races BEFORE even Christmas and did embarrassingly in the Champions league. The 2 big titles which mattered the most in the Pl and cl proceeded to be utter failure of epic proportion.

So NO Jose was NOT a success. He was a failure by any definition one can think of.

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

No.

Here for 3 seasons, failed to make a title challenge in any of them.

This last half season has been such a disaster, it's clouded his whole reign. If he'd been sacked in the summer then his record would have looked decent.

 

[Greck]

He would have been a qualified success if he had left after last season. Two cups, steadied the ship and brought us back to title contention. The third season undid a lot of that and we're back to where we were when he came

 

[Mainoldo]

No! Worse than Moyes.

 

[Orange Tree]

Should have sacked him at the end of last season. First season was great, second season wasn't.

We were playing horrible football after the turn of the year. Going out on a whimper in CL was also a clear warning sign.

 

[beedoubleyou]

No.

 

[WensleyMU]

No! Worse than Moyes.

Just no, just no.

Then again I recall your views on Inter and remember to take what you say with a hefty dose of salt

 

[KM]

No he wasn't. There's no ifs and buts involved.

 

[Samid]

1. LVG
2. Moyes
3. Mourinho

He gets a bronze medal in the 'best permanent manager since Fergie' competition. Bronze isn't that bad.

 

[Ban]

Not saying much but most successful manager since Fergie left.
This year clouds the previous 2 which were good imo.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

I never enjoyed football under him. It was always the underdog mentality and negativity.

Yes we won trophies but playing ultra shite football. Finished second which was meaningless considering how far we were from the top.

No title challenge, no consistency, no style of play, no enjoyment only consistent moaning

 

[Tom Van Persie]

No he was hired to win us a league title and failed. Most successful manager post Fergie because he did win two trophies and got us by far our best finish since Fergie retired but eh, best of a bad bunch really.

 

[WensleyMU]

In context against the two before him, yes he was. Against United in general, he's in the middle of the pack.

This season was a disaster, but Mourinho is only part of the blame for that.

 

[walkinhop]

Moyes failed for less than a season. This energy vampire has spent and spent and given time to only get worse. Moyes would have won the league with the resources and time Mourinho got. Gotcha

 

[vidic blood & sand]

1. LVG
2. Moyes
3. Mourinho

He gets a bronze medal in the 'best permanent manager since Fergie' competition. Bronze isn't that bad.

Moyes with the silver?

 

[Ban]

Moyes failed for less than a season. This energy vampire has spent and spent and given time to only get worse. Moyes would have won the league with the resources and time Mourinho got. Gotcha

Sure, he would, sure.

 

[Giant Midget]

was he feck.

/thread.

 

[Enigma_87]

Not saying much but most successful manager since Fergie left.
This year clouds the previous 2 which were good imo.

Yup. Pretty much this.

I thought he had 2 good years all things considered. This season so far it has been an utter fail.

 

[Varun]

Yeah, he succeeded in turning us to shit

 

[Santoryo]

No.

Here for 3 seasons, failed to make a title challenge in any of them.

This last half season has been such a disaster, it's clouded his whole reign. If he'd been sacked in the summer then his record would have looked decent.

That's basically the most important bit in any argument regarding Mourinho's situation.

I think some people might have forgotten this but Mourinho was brought in to win us big titles and the fact that he failed to mount a title challenge in any of his 3 seasons with us speaks volume of the magnitude of his failure. Coupled with his disastrous Champions League runs, he's only shown failure here.

 

[Robbo's Shoulder]

No, he came with a massive reputation as a winner. A League cup and a Europa League are not the wins a manager of United should be lauded for. He was meant to contend with Pep, fighting for League and ECL trophies. He failed miserably.

 

[walkinhop]

Sure, he would, sure.

 

[Slevs]

No.

Here for 3 seasons, failed to make a title challenge in any of them.

This last half season has been such a disaster, it's clouded his whole reign. If he'd been sacked in the summer then his record would have looked decent.

His second season saw us accumulate 81 points. Assume City didn't have that out of this world season in which they only lost twice, our 81 point tally would have gotten us:

2nd place in 16/17
Joint 1st (didn't check GD on my phone) in 15/16
3rd in 14/15

If you think he could have done better with this squad than last season without significant reinforcements, then yeah he has failed according to you.

 

[Massive Spanner]

No, no chance.

Although he wasn't worse than Moyes, that was catastrophic. At least Jose won some trophies and got us back to being a pretty good team last season.

I guess if you compare this season to Moyes first it was probably worse, but we can't really do that, we've no idea what a third season under Moyes would've been like - probably dreadful.

 

[MiceOnMeth]

I'm sorry but spending the kind of money LVG and Jose spent and not challenging for the title AT LEAST ONCE is inexcusable and sorry Jose fanboys finishing 20 points behind city is not challenging. League cups and secondary European trophies are nice but they don't justify the huge sums of money he spent. Failure end of.

 

[Moonwalker]

Mourinho has never been successful in a third season. This is the 4th time he has left the club. At Porto he was at the 2.5 year mark and the last of those was very successful, so that slightly bucks the trend. Anyway, the point is he is not a successful longer term manager so the third season is on our board for extending his contract

In his first year he steadied the ship, got us back in CL with a Europa win and also won the League cup. This said league form was not great with us ending 6th, but you could put that down to investing in the Europa. Given this all happened in a first season after coming 5th under LVG and with new players to bed in, this feels as much as you might have expected from any manager.

The second season we got to the FA Cup final and lost with a whimper. The CL we went out with a whimper. Similarly the League Cup. The league with us coming 2nd behind the most successful league team ever on lots of metrics is maybe quite reasonable given their financial doping.

So whilst it wasn't necessarily a success in SAF terms. Was it a reasonable return when looking at the two seasons combined?

The third half season has been a disaster no question.

Just an interesting alternative view.

No question of him deserving to go on anything like that. I simply think maybe he got the best of a bad bunch and his style simply wont bring success over a longer period.

He was a reasonable appointment given how desperate we were, and he delivered what it says on the tin (in good and bad ways alike). The really deluded and unreasonable expectations were that he is now a changed man, ready to settle down, in it for the long haul, matured, the closest thing to Sir Alex, and so on and so forth. To those expectations he is no doubt a failure.

As for your 'bad bunch' comment, Mourinho's job was to make them less of a bad bunch, and he signed eleven players to that end. It's not an immutable fact that the poor manager had to deal with.

 

[Patrick08]

Not saying much but most successful manager since Fergie left.
This year clouds the previous 2 which were good imo.

He also spent the maximum though.

 

[Santoryo]

He would have been a qualified success if he had left after last season. Two cups, steadied the ship and brought us back to title contention. The third season undid a lot of that and we're back to where we were when he came

When did that ever happen?

Please don't confuse coming second, 20 points off the winners with being title contenders.

 

[saivet]

No and even his EL success we very nearly went out when Gudetti (?) completely mishit a shot for an open goal at OT.

That was his biggest success the EL and even ignoring our easy draw, we weren't that impressive throughout the tournament.

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

His second season saw us accumulate 81 points. Assume City didn't have that out of this world season in which they only lost twice, our 81 point tally would have gotten us:

2nd place in 16/17
Joint 1st (didn't check GD on my phone) in 15/16
3rd in 14/15

If you think he could have done better with this squad than last season without significant reinforcements, then yeah he has failed according to you.

Yeah he failed according to me and the vast majority of Utd fans.

It doesn't matter what our points tally would have got us 3 or 4 years ago. I'm saying he was here for 3 seasons and in all of them we were out of any sort of title challenge by Xmas.

This season we were out of a title challenge by August for feck sake.

 

[Ban]

He also spent the maximum though.

There's a maximum?

 

[steeeb]

Winning the Europa League and League Cup in the first year was a success - it was more successful than City's finishing 2nd in my opinion.

The next year finishing 2nd was good. We obviously had a poor defence so we were balanced to suit the problem. Some didn't really like the way we played but coming 2nd to a City team that finally clicked was good - especially when the likes of Liverpool and Spurs were looking good but finished behind us.

The problem we have, is that Mourinho spat his dummy out at the beginning on the third season. He wanted players he did not get, and went on a mission to prove this. We stopped his balance and went more attacking, which did look a bit better on the eye to begin with, but our defence really suffered. On top of this, he was messing around with the back each game and being political playing midfielders there and giving digs to the board constantly.

It then dawned on him that Liverpool were also going to be a heavy hitter also. The squad needed investment and he wasn't getting it. He just signed a new contract so may as well walk with a payoff - he proceeded to do the tried and tested falling out with players, being miserable, more digs at the board until he was fired.

Had he been backed heavily at the end of last season, maybe. The problem is, I don't believe Jose can build a team like we need. He's great when things are going well, his arrogance is what earned him The Special One - but he's also a brat when things aren't going his way.

We need someone to look at the long term picture and build a team. We then need a COACH to see this vision and to focus on training, tactics and motivating the players.

 

[sugar_kane]

No, he was a prick.

I’m astonished in retrospect how as a club and set of fans the majority of us (myself included) were arrogant enough to think it was fine to ignore his past behaviour and track record and warnings of rival fans whose teams had actually been managed by him.

We were blinded by the track record of trophies, results and that old charisma even though it was commonly accepted that he wasn’t the same manager since his experience at Madrid

We basically sold our soul for a couple of shit trophies and a second place finish.

It was telling when Van Gaal (and even Moyes to an extent) went I was happy for the club but a bit gutted for them. With Jose it was pure elation and seeing him being driven off from the Lowry back to his London mansion with that smirk on his face confirmed to me that he never gave a toss about the club nor the utter chaos he had left in his wake.

 

[duffer]

I'll always remember his time at Man United with a smile.

 

[Ban]

No and even his EL success we very nearly went out when Gudetti (?) completely mishit a shot for an open goal at OT.

That was his biggest success the EL and even ignoring our easy draw, we weren't that impressive throughout the tournament.

Clubs nearly going out then winning the cup happens all the time.

 

[wolvored]

Moyes failed for less than a season. This energy vampire has spent and spent and given time to only get worse. Moyes would have won the league with the resources and time Mourinho got. Gotcha

Good un

 

[Santoryo]

Yeah he failed according to me and the vast majority of Utd fans.

It doesn't matter what our points tally would have got us 3 or 4 years ago. I'm saying he was here for 3 seasons and in all of them we were out of any sort of title challenge by Xmas.

This season we were out of a title challenge by August for feck sake.

 

[Snafu17]

If he managed to continue the progression in his third season he would be. You could easily chalk up the lacklustre performances of last seasons second half to form. But it all went off a cliff.

 

[LuisNaniencia]

If he was hired on a 2 year contract, most would say he's done an okay job and we should have had a new manager ready to start and recruit his own squad at the end of last season. So I see your point OP.