Why Man Utd fans should be thrilled with 'ruthless' Mourinho's treatment of Mata and Schweinsteiger

A lot of hue and cry is being made about current Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho’s reported ill-treatment of Bastian Schweinsteiger, who was asked to train with the reserves. While the Special One’s move was slammed across the world, Mourinho barely batted an eyelid but it appears that like his arch-rival Pep Guardiola (who allowed Schweinsteiger to leave on a free transfer), the Man Utd coach doesn’t rate the ageing German star highly.

FIFpro board member Dejan Stefanovic actually demanded, that Mourinho be ‘jailed’ for ‘bullying’, but Mourinho was nonchalant as usual, dismissing any suggestion with a simple: “The Manager decides that’s it.”  Mourinho displayed the same sort of ruthlessness when he hauled off Juan Mata, a player he has history with after substituting him ( introduced in 63rd minute and subbed in the 93rd minute) during Manchester United’s 2-1 victory over Leicester City at Wembley in the FA Community Shield.

Talking about his treatment of Mata, Jose said: “I needed to take off the smallest player because we were expecting a lot of long balls. The rules allow six changes, I had made five and I wanted to stop the game.  I think he played very well. He gave me exactly what I needed.” However, anyone who’s followed Mourinho’s career will know that he is sending out a clear message to Mata, a player he sold to Manchester United for £37.1m in January 2014 from Chelsea.

 This was classic Machiavellian Mourinho and BBC pundit and former player Danny Murphy called the incident ‘embarrassing’ for Mata.

While neutral football fans across the world are probably smarting at the treatment of two of their favourite players, Manchester United fans should take heart that Mourinho is acting just like the man who they worshipped – Sir Alex Ferguson. The truth is that despite all the emotions that football inspire in us, there’s no room for sentiment in the game. It’s about winning and you don’t become a winner by being a friend to everyone. The only thing that matters is the end result for the team, and anyone who was deemed a hindrance was shown the door during the Ferguson era.  

Ferguson’s career at Manchester United is littered with examples of players who he cut off the moment he felt they were going to be a liability or becoming too big for their own boots. That list includes Old Trafford legends like David Beckham, Roy Keane, Ruud Nistlerooy, Paul Ince and you’d feel that Wayne Rooney would also be on his way if Ferguson had stuck around.

It didn’t matter how many years you served United loyally, or how much the fans loved you, the moment you were deemed a liability, a problem in the dressing room or if your powers were on the wane, then you were asked to leave or sold off.

Ferguson and Beckham were like father and son before they fell out (Getty Images) 

Explaining his decision to get rid of Beckham, he wrote in his autobiography: “David Beckham thought he was bigger than Sir Alex Ferguson. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Alex Ferguson or Pete the Plumber. The name of the manager is irrelevant. You cannot have a player taking over a dressing room. That was the death knell for him.”

Beckham, every football fan will recall, was let go when Ferguson kicked a boot into his face, and the decision came at a time when Ferguson felt that Beckham’s global style lifestyle was becoming detrimental to the player and the team. That Beckham was a youngster he had moulded from scratch, watching him grow up with paternal joy mattered little to Ferguson.

Similarly, Roy Keane, his captain ‘prod every blade of grass’ for Ferguson and the team for 13 seasons was shown the door after an extraordinary outburst against certain members of the Manchester United team in 2005. Keane’s contract was torn up, and he was allowed to go to Celtic.

At that time Keane’s powers, his immense stamina and ability to cover the field was starting to wane, and you have a feeling that Ferguson wouldn’t have got rid of Keane so abruptly if the Roy Keane he was dealing with in his prime, when he won matches with his sheer grit.

Similarly, goal-machine Ruud Van Nistlerooy was let go when he felt he was becoming a hindrance to the growth of a young Cristiano Ronaldo with whom Nistlerooy never got along. These are high profile examples of the manager cutting the chord, even if it was umbilical, when it was detrimental to the team.

Ferguson’s ruthlessness set him apart from his peers and Mourinho is of the same mould. Manchester United didn’t become the most dominant team in England by being nice guys and were actually one of the most hated teams in the land. It was an effect Ferguson quite liked because it created the siege mentality, an ‘Us v/s Them’ mentality that spurred Manchester United players on. David Moyes, Ferguson’s immediate successor lacked this ruthlessness admitting that sometimes he kept Robin on because he thought he’d be criticised.

Moyes had said: “I think if I’d brought him off (against Newcastle) some people would say ‘What are you doing? You are 1-0 down and you’re taking off your top goalscorer.” Can you imagine Ferguson or Mourinho worrying about what ‘some people’ would say? While Van Gaal shared the same arrogance that didn’t worry about other people’s perception, his inflexible ways made Manchester United the most boring team in the land, and made the players look thoroughly disinterested. 

Perhaps, Mourinho’s ruthlessness, combined with a man-managing ability that has been hailed by his former players, can lead Manchester United back to the top of the table in England and Europe.