Fair enough balanced summary of the season by Wayne Barton
So, there it is. Manchester United finish sixth after Jose Mourinho’s first season in charge, and, depending on who you listen to, the campaign was an unmitigated disaster. Others insist there has been progress after a difficult couple of years despite the lack of on-pitch proof to back it up.
Certainly, as the recriminations began in earnest, it became clear that Mourinho’s League finish was going to count against him when it came to comparisons against the other top managers in the division, most of whom haven’t won a trophy between them. After all, critics say that Mourinho had a squad that was assembled for more than £250m. The football has been awful. His squad management has been poor; more should have been expected than sixth, he shouldn’t be celebrating winning the Europa League, and he certainly shouldn’t be complaining about a long season because these are the demands of top level football with which he should be familiar.
And so let us consider those criticisms one by one; the cost of the squad is a very misleading argument as we look at the idea of value and quality. The £250m figure was thrown around after Arsenal’s win over United in early May but looking at the argument player by player really does expose it for what it is. £27.5m on Marouane Fellaini, a divisive player if ever there was one. The story goes that had David Moyes bought Fellaini earlier in the summer, it would have cost £5m less, as per the Belgian’s release clause at the time. Juan Mata cost United £38m the following January; Mata was deemed surplus to requirements by Mourinho at Chelsea and has battled to impress him in Manchester. Mata played 25 games after being an ever-present under Van Gaal last season. £30m on Wayne Rooney in 2004 is another great example of the point; can anyone argue that Rooney has not been worth the money? He has broken goalscoring records for club and country and—despite what is thought of him as a personality—will go down as a legend.
Do those three players—Fellaini, Mata and Rooney—represent £100m of talent, though? There is talk that United will write off the last two years of his contract and allow Rooney to leave for free if not for a nominal fee. One would imagine Juan Mata might fetch £15m on the market, and Fellaini, if we’re being kind, £6m? Even if you were to insist that their cost does mean they were £110m of talent, then, does that really translate as Mourinho’s mistake in mis-management? These were players brought in by other managers; it seems ludicrous to judge him because David Moyes saw fit to spend the best part of £70m on Mata and Fellaini.
By all means judge him by the quality of the players he buys, and perhaps judge him on the wisdom in keeping some of the players beyond his second summer after having a year to assess them closely. The squad cost argument however seems so nonsensical and one-sided as to clearly illustrate that the point is agenda-driven.
The subsequent point after referencing the cost is often that the football should be better, with the implication being that the football has regressed. Ask any Manchester United supporter which variation of frustration they would have preferred over the last four seasons and the majority would say they’d take the 2016/17 season. The start of the season promised much and yet it seemed that confidence drained from the squad; the run of home draws was initially, and mostly, down to profligacy. So, for as long as the chances presented themselves, it would be okay; but then, the chances became harder to fashion, as the team struggled with the weight of expectation as the reputation for their home draws grew.
It appears that the manager, too, struggled to come to terms with games at Old Trafford, seeing how unapologetic teams were when coming to get a point. His relationship with the stadium has been one of the fascinating subplots in his first year but he will have been given little indications about the various idiosyncrasies that make it such a unique arena; On Sunday, for example, he tossed in a bunch of kids and was probably bracing himself for a heavy beating when he saw that Sam Allardyce had named a full strength side. But witnessing the way the youngsters stood tall and marvellously dealt with the test; and seeing the way the Old Trafford crowd took to them, you have to think that Mourinho will surely have acknowledged the certain value of including home-grown players in his squad more often next season.
United’s league campaign was effectively 34 games, with the last four given away. With the manager’s public show very clearly emphasising that the Europa League was the only thing that mattered, performances accordingly dropped, aside from yesterday, where the value of putting all the kids in was illustrated in the dedication that has been notable by its absence in recent weeks. United fans have seen enough to by and large retain some encouragement that it will be the football seen earlier in the season which will be prominent next year but they have also seen enough to give them reservations that will be the case.
That anxiety is supported by the concern by some in how Mourinho has handled his squad. Even players he brought in haven’t been immune from criticism and, again, it seems as if it’s a case of seeing whether the ends justify the means before judgement is cast.
As for the latter of the points; the pre-season level of expectation was that United would be challenging for the title, so on that front of course the year has been a huge disappointment, but most were able to identify that there were some significant problems which the manager inherited and so he has been afforded the year to fix them, in much the same way that time was given to Louis van Gaal. It seemed obvious just five months into the Dutchman’s second season that United were regressing and that at least some of the reason for that was a number of the squad’s resistance to the methods of the experienced coach; so, it stands to reason that if Mourinho is the cause and not the solution of his team’s problems by this time next year, then supporters will be justified in that concern too.
Does the manager have his own justification in complaining about the length of the season? Managers have been complaining about long campaigns since time began but few have been derided in the same manner as Mourinho; fewer still have had their every word taken apart and dissected with previous words at different clubs in different circumstances presented against him to support accusations of hypocrisy, or, worse, to support suggestions of him losing touch with the game.
Of course, Mourinho couldn’t have been surprised by the simple equation of games accumulating if you advance in tournaments, but as usual, it seems his point was either missed or directed elsewhere and the intention has not yet been hit. Other teams have had similar runs in the past but it seems more likely that it was some of the absurdity of the scheduling which he has complained about during the last three months, concluded with his wish that United’s last league game could have been played on the Saturday, that he was disgruntled about. Long term, of course, you can’t help but get the feeling that Mourinho is looking at Stamford Bridge and Anfield and thinking that he has potential criticisms to level at them next season when messrs Conte and Klopp have to contend with European football.
Which is all well and good, though, as outlined in last week’s column, so much of next season depends on United tasting success on Wednesday night. For many of the grey areas, the supporters will give the manager the benefit of the doubt, but should victory not follow the gamble then Mourinho might find that the prevailing mood is apprehensive at best.
Wayne Barton is the football columnist for eirSport. He has been described by the Independent as ‘the leading writer on Manchester United’ after numerous books on the club and autobiographies.
