Trying To Define Jose Mourinho’s Relationship With Manchester United Fans
Eliot Rothwell |
March 3, 2017 |
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Football News 24/7
We’ve come to know most of Jose Mourinho’s tropes. Since his arrival at Chelsea in 2004, Mourinho has been a constant in the English football landscape, even when at Inter and Real Madrid. We’ve become accustomed to his behaviour, his media manipulation, his methods for winning games, and his tendency to isolate a big name player on arrival at a new club.
But one aspect of Mourinho’s management tends to receive less attention. He has a strange relationship with fans.
In his last three jobs, at Real Madrid, Chelsea and now Manchester United, Mourinho has criticised the club’s fans in the early part of his tenure; at Madrid, after a win over Osasuna, he said “I want to thank some of the fans that were behind one of the goals. Because not for them the stadium would have seemed empty”; at Chelsea, following a victory against QPR, he said “at this moment it’s difficult to play at home because playing here is like playing in an empty stadium”; and at United, he told fans to ensure an upcoming game against Liverpool was “not to be like a theatre”. In each instance, Mourinho spoke after a win, from a position of strength, to demand more from the fans.
Yet at United, things are slightly different. Like at Madrid and Chelsea, Mourinho demanded more from the fans early on, but those comments have been wrapped up in a more farming attitude. Unlike other recent jobs, Mourinho appears to be actively courting support from the fans through means other than positive results.
The most recent comments praised the United fans’ “unrivalled passion”, but these are just the latest in a string of such appeals. Before, the fans have been praised as “realistic”, “understanding” and “always supporting the team”, while, after defeat to Chelsea, Mourinho revealed that the playing squad and staff had a meeting “dedicated to the fans, just thinking about them, their feelings and their disappointment”.
The attitude to United’s fans, and the amount of public statements about them, marks a departure for Mourinho. Previously, he had been happy to demand more from fans and offer thanks to them following trophy wins, but the sheer amount of attention dedicated to the United fans is unprecedented, with his days at Porto perhaps coming close.
The pertinent question, then, is why? Diego Torres’ controversial book suggests that Mourinho always wanted to be Sir Alex Ferguson’s heir, with David Moyes’ appointment leaving the Portuguese baffled. But there’s more than just being appointed to a coveted position. When Ferguson retired, the club’s directors, and the international media, weighed upon the options presented to them. In the eyes of the media, and apparently of Sir Bobby Charlton, Mourinho’s slash-and-burn style of management did not fit in at Old Trafford. His style of play, controversial statements, short-termism and lack of youth development were conceived of as at odds with the qualities needed to manage United.
Those accusations were also voiced by fans, and Mourinho knows it. His time at United has demonstrated that. On his arrival at the club, he presented journalists with a “list” of youth players he had developed, spoke of attacking football. His demeanour has also changed. Many pundits interpreted a change in media style as a mark of unhappiness, of some spark disappearing. But each of the personal changes Mourinho has attempted to make are each linked to the established perceptions about his style and its suitability to United. He wants to be thought of differently and the appeals to fans are part of the process of establishing himself as a United man.