In other, sadder news, My Beloved Foxes™ are continuing to wallow mid-table with no apparent zeal for challenging for Europe. 1-0 losers to Palace at Selhurst Park, though in fairness, they did have some chances (chances that seemed to always go in that magical season three years ago!). I give Puel his props for improving the team so that it won’t be dragged into a relegation fight, but it would be nice if we could simply take the next step that so invitingly sits on our doorstep and start fighting to be in 7th place. Or, given Manchester United’s issues, sixth place!
I really do wonder if Man U would have fired Mourinho had it not been so soon to the very busy end of year fixture schedule? If they look this bad after the 1st of the year, he’s likely to be gone.
Speculation is that he’ll be sacked immediately after they get dumped from the UCL. Which will probably be around Feb. 20 or so, since I don’t see them getting past PSG.
On the other hand, the nature of a cup competition is that it could be Mourinho’s (only) salvation. It’s not uncommon for teams doing poorly in the league to perform well in a cup. See Liverpool 2005, for example. Winning the CL might be United’s best chance of qualifying for next season’s event, though it won’t be nearly as probable as the Europa League a couple of years ago when a similar situation applied.
I have to wonder, with a guarenteed UCL place for the winner, and no realistic chance of winning the competition this year and less liklihood of qualifying through league positiuon, won’t it been almost better for ManU to take the relegation to the UEL?
I wonder if this will become a regular thing soon, clubs will calculate that a run in the Europa league is better than a R16 exit in the CL?
I think PSG is a right winnable thing. Neymar probably is crying at the prospect of having to become Fellaini’s bitch again. Twice!
As it turned out, he just got sacked this morning.
I’m gonna miss Jose crying about how the most valuable club in world footy can’t just purchase all the good players any more because there are too many other good teams. It’s just not fair, dammit.
I can’t say I’m shocked at Mourinho’s sacking. In his post-game comments in the tunnel, he basically stated that the United players didn’t have the quality of the Liverpool players, and that the result was inevitable because Liverpool were that much better. He also asserted that the best the club could fight for was fourth place, and made it sound like he didn’t think they had a good shot even at that. When the manager of Manchester United starts saying he thinks his team is the rough equivalent of an Everton or a West Ham United, he’s gotten pretty toxic.
And the sacking is right on schedule; it was almost exactly three years ago Chelsea got tired of his third season antics and tossed him out on his ear.
I mean, it’s true that Liverpool has a better roster and that ManU would be lucky to finish 4th. Whose fault is that though?
I wonder if they’ll also see big roster changes in the winter window, or if that’ll wait until summer. It definitely sounded like Pogba was on his way out. Will this change that?
Funny Tweet from Pizza Hut UK about Mourinho applying to work there.
I’m all for giving managers a chance but I think Mourinho had his, and then some. The question is, will history end up viewing him as a great manager with one or two bad spells, or an egotist who had fleeting success that he later couldn’t replicate? Obviously that will depend on what he does next. If it’s the former, it will be very frustrating as a United fan that I couldn’t do it for us, but I would still blame him, not the club. Then again, you never really know what goes on behind the scenes.
Hopefully Pogba will stay if he likes whoever the new manager is. But I see they don’t intend to appoint a permanent replacement until the summer, which I guess means they’re basically writing this season off as trophyless. That seems odd to me.
Worse still, Solskjaer is the current bookies’ favourite - loved him as a player and a person, don’t think he’s the right man for the job, Giggs would be better and that’s not saying much. Next in line are Blanc and Zidane - both having had some experience but untested at more than one big club (like Mourinho…). Pochettino or Howe would be good, I think. Mark Hughes didn’t even make the list - not surprisingly. But he would also be a better option that Solskjaer, in my uninformed opinion.
Fleeting success? I think Mourinho is an egotist that hasn’t adapted as well as he should have, but he’s had a phenomenal coaching career. He won the Champion’s league twice, the first time with Porto! 8 league titles in 4 different countries and a bunch of domestic cups. Out of current managers his legacy is maybe behind Pep (TBD on people like Zidane or Klopp).
I agree with Snarky_Kong, Mourinho is going to go down as one of the all time greats even if he retires right now. He’s been astonishingly good, but he’s a jerk that people don’t get along with.
As for the above, Poche didn’t leave when Barca came calling, he’s not leaving Spurs for ManU.
Since my fandom is recent enough that I don’t know anything about Solskjaer, I guess you could be damning Hughes with faint praise. Because I don’t think he has a creative bone in his body.
:disgruntledSotonfan:
Solskjaer is a decent shout, IMHO, although I am surprised to see a club of Utd’s stature prepared to write the season off in such a bald fashion. Keep the fans happy with someone who gets the club (LOL), he’ll probably not be as bad as you would expect anyhow, and then make the play for a real manager season end. If they appointed a serious manager now, who was not their long term target, it would just complicate things. Good to see the club at least have some basic moral standards and pass over Giggs the lizard for the role.
Would love to see someone like Howe being given a crack at it but don’t think it’s realistic. The players couldn’t be arsed putting in a shift for a legend like Mourinho, so can you imagine how they’d respond to a callow (in rel terms) guy like Howe? Bottom line is that there is a malaise about the club that appears deeply rooted - it’s going to take someone special to drag them back into the light. Needs someone at that magic inflection point, an established winner but still hungry and plenty left to prove, so Poch and Zidane are obv frontrunners.
Won’t be easy to land either of them, mind - Poch in particular must be pretty happy with what Spurs are doing on and off the field atm.
Ah - I was assuming Ole was favourite to be the permanent replacement next summer. I agree he would be a decent choice to see out this season (though even then, why wait? Surely the squad is good enough that if they can get a top manager now, progressing to the later stages of the European Cup isn’t out of the question?).
I think Solskjaer’s Norwegian club, Molde, have said that it’s a temporary appointment i.e. they expect Ole back at the end of the English season.
I doubt Man U. see Ole as permanent - they’re probably negotiating with a big name now…
The favorite to be wooed is Pochettino. He won’t be available (if at all) until the year’s end. Solskjaer is just a caretaker manager.
Arsene Wegner is available…