Like Ferguson, Mourinho is a manager who excels through dominance. Fergie’s mantra that ‘no player was bigger than this club’ was actually a twist on the reality: No player was bigger than him, as David Beckham and Jaap Stam learned. Mourinho’s arrival promises a return to that totalitarian control.
The personification of this quest for total authority is Wayne Rooney. After announcing his retirement, Ferguson made the point of throwing Rooney and his agent Paul Stretford under the bus by revealing the player’s transfer request, the final two-finger salute of a bitter feud between dictator and dissenting subject.
When David Moyes arrived, Rooney was again made persona grata, ego and bank balance flattered to the tune of a new five-and-a-half-year contract worth £300,000 a week. Even Van Gaal, that supposed ‘Iron Tulip’, made Rooney his captain, publicly labelled him the club’s No. 1 striker and handed him a midfield role when the goals and creativity dried up. All the while, Rooney knew he had more friends in the press than Van Gaal.
It didn’t take Mourinho long to dilute Rooney’s significance at Old Trafford. “Maybe he is not a striker anymore, or a nine, but with me he will never be a six playing 50 metres from the goal,” United’s new manager said during his unveiling. “He will be a nine, a 10, a nine and a half, but not a six or eight. You can tell me his pass is amazing but my pass is amazing too without pressure.”
‘Pow!’ and ‘Thwack!’ are the appropriate noises to make; the biggest rival to Mourinho’s sovereignty had been belittled. It took three years for Rooney to perfect his status as the most powerful man at Old Trafford; it took Jose Mourinho 30 minutes to destroy his reign.
The criticism that Mourinho’s style goes against the ‘United way’ has lost credence. As soon as Manchester City appointed Pep Guardiola, their rivals needed to respond with their own trump card. The allegation that Mourinho is addicted to winning at all costs will quickly transform into a compliment should the victories become an avalanche.
“For many years, Manchester United success was just routine, and their last three years are to forget,” said Mourinho has he held court at Old Trafford for the first time. Wayne Rooney will be all too aware of his prominent role in that spell in the wilderness. Manchester United’s captain may well be the first casualty of this fallen giant being hauled back to its feet by the one man who relishes the weight of expectation.
