Why Man Utd should sack Van Gaal and hire Jose Mourinho

The Van Gaal philosophy is going through its deepest existential crisis ever. For the fourth time, Manchester United lost to a much-less fancied opposition while as Stoke City romped to a 2-0 lead. The United side looked unlikely to score, and now face Chelsea in their next match. 

When Sir Alex Ferguson had decided to retire, the Manchester United board had considered a host of names to succeed him. The main contenders were – Jurgen Klopp, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelloti, Louis Van Gaal and David Moyes. He had written in his book Leading: “It became apparent that Jose Mourinho had given his word to Roman Abramovich that he would return to Chelsea and that Carlo Ancelotti would succeed him at Real Madrid. We also knew Jurgen Klopp was happy at Borussia Dortmund and would be signing a new contract. Louis van Gaal had undertaken to lead the Dutch attempt to win the 2014 World Cup.”

Sir Alex had also asked Pep Guardiola to give him a call before listening to any offers but the latter didn’t and ended up joining Bayern Munich. The board ended up choosing Moyes – The Chosen One – who was quite out of depth at Manchester United.

He was followed by the philosophy-loving tyrant that is Louis Van Gaal who has barely done better than Moyes despite spending £250 million since he took charge and off-loading players who are making him eat his words with world class performances.

As for his ‘philosophy’, it’s amidst its existential crisis with no one, from pundits to players, able to explain what exactly it entails. It’s overtly awful for fans, who have to check if it’s really Man Utd in those famed red shirts, as they are told that they can’t expect the success that defined Manchester United earlier.

It’s time Manchester United realised that Louis Van Gaal is not working out, and they go after the man who would definitely restore Manchester United to the upper echelons of English and European football.

Why choose Jose over Pep

Two #UCL triumphs and @ChelseaFC's most successful manager. Mourinho's career in photos - https://t.co/FluE1ZvLNw pic.twitter.com/NjU4hXcQem

— Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) December 17, 2015

While there are many who argue that Manchester United should pip city rivals Manchester City and move for Pep Guardiola, when he leaves Bayern Munich at the end of this year (as the newspapers suggest), it’d be a much better option to get Jose Mourinho. Interestingly, both of them are proteges of Louis Van Gaal from his time at Barcelona.

Pep was LVG’s captain while Jose Mourinho was the translator who Van Gaal picked to be his assistant manager, moved by his loyalty to former manager Bryan Robson. What followed was described by some as the greatest coaching seminar of all time as Louis Van Gaal worked with Jose Mourinho and Ronald Koeman (current Southampton manager) as his assistant coaches while Frank De Boer (current Ajax manager), Pep Guardiola (current Bayern Munich manager) and Luis Enrique (current Barcelona manager) played for him.

All of them would go on to be extremely successful managers, with Mourinho, Guardiola and Luis Enrique even winning the treble. In fact, Jose Mourinho won his treble against Louis Van Gaal’s Bayern Munich in 2010, after both clubs had won their domestic cups and leagues.

While Pep Guardiola’s record as manager is superlative, Jose’s CV stands out because of the greater diversity. While Pep Guardiola has won the leagues and domestic cups at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, one has to point out that in both leagues he was managing the best team in the land with the best players and the most resources. Last year, after winning the league Jose, had said that maybe in the future he’d manage in a country where the kitman could win the league, in an apparent jibe at Guardiola. (Read: Why Chelsea made a huge mistake sacking Jose Mourinho)

He had said: “Maybe in the future, I have to be smarter and choose another club in another country where everybody is a champion. Maybe I will go to a country where a kitman can be the coach and win the title.” Mourinho simply has more experience in managing and also has shown his ability to win in different circumstances.

Another downside to Pep’s management style seems to be the fact that he has only one style of play – the famed tiki-taka. Football and life doesn’t work that way, and the lack of Plan B has hurt his teams in the past, especially with high pressing and quick counter-attacking. It was Mourinho’s Inter Milan which showed us in 2010, how to counter the Barcelona brand of tiki-taka, forcing the team to pass sideways, completely bereft of guile or imagination. That particular win was classic Mourinho, playing more than an hour with 10 men after Motta was sent off. This was a defensive master-class and after the match, Mourinho had run onto the pitch in defiance against the supporters who mockingly called him “The Translator”. In fact, among his bunch of comrades, Mourinho would stand as the anti-Barcelona among all his colleagues from Camp Nou.

(Read: Forget your philosophy Louis Van Gaal, Man Utd fans are never going to accept mediocrity) 

According to Sun’s football writer Rob Beasley, who is known to be a Mourinho confidant, Jose would love to manage Manchester United. Beasley was quoted saying: “The two clubs he always talked about were Liverpool, that's gone now, he would have loved to have gone up there and reawakened Merseyside and won the league with them. The other was Manchester United.”

Mourinho had thought that he would be Ferguson’s successor but that didn’t work out: “He thought - and Fergie thought - he was getting the job when Fergie was leaving, they had spoken about it. It seemed Fergie was setting Jose up to take over. But he ended up back at Chelsea. Manchester United, he would love it. Imagine Jose Mourinho walking out in front of the Stretford End and giving them the pump fists. 'What can we do? You're the 12th man.' The fans would go mental.”

While the misty-eyed romantic in me would love Class of 92 alumni Ryan Giggs (or even Gary Neville) to take over with his Class of 92’ buddies – Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Phil Neville – as coaches, while Eric Cantona becomes the team’s official motivator, that might not result in real-world success and is unrealistic.

 On the other hand, Jose Mourinho might be the only option to stop Manchester United from going the Liverpool way, who seem to have found their renaissance man in Jurgen Klopp.

He is the only man who’s big enough to fill the shoes left behind by Sir Alex Ferguson. Or as former player Robbie Savage put it in his column for The Mirror: “… the board at Old Trafford must be sorely tempted to consider Mourinho as a front runner because he is a proven winner. His record speaks for itself. Coaches who win titles in four different countries do not grow on trees. It would be absolutely brilliant for the Premier League - truly electrifying - if Mourinho took over at United with a point to prove.”

It would be truly electrifying, to see the young manager who couldn't contain his excitement at beating Manchester United in the UEFA Champions league come back. 

via GIPHY