UK Edition
Why Nemanja Matic joining Man Utd is the logical next step in the Jose Mourinho masterplan
As Chelsea’s march to the title became relentless through early 2015, and Jose Mourinho looked like he might reign for a decade at a club to which he once never looked likely to return, he held forth on the decision to re-sign Nemanja Matic the previous year.
Matic had first joined the club aged 21 in 2009 after Mourinho’s first spell and he had left before the return of the club’s most successful manager, but the way in which Mourinho spoke about the Serb that day suggested that he had known about him his whole career. "If I was here, a left footed player, Mourinho said, "1.95 metres [tall]; position: midfield - would never, never, never leave. Never.”
Now Matic – all 1.95 metres of him - is a Mourinho player for the second time in his career, a £40 million signing for Manchester United from Chelsea, where he has steadfastly refused to negotiate a new deal and forced the hand of a club who would much prefer never to have sold him to a rival. As he done so often in his managerial career, Mourinho has returned to sign a player with whom he has achieved success in the past.
In that 2014-2015 title winning season, Matic was outstanding for Chelsea and his expensive re-acquisition came to be seen as a strength: they had made a mistake in selling him and by bringing him back they were ignoring the usual conventions and addressing their previous error. The next question to Mourinho that day in March 2015 when he listed Matic’s physical attributes was why clubs did not protect themselves with buy-back clauses, the example being cited Manchester United and Juventus’ then stand-out midfielder Paul Pogba.
Since the re-signing of Matic it has become more common for clubs to re-sign players – as with Chelsea and David Luiz, and, of course, United and Pogba. As for Mourinho, his habit of signing players he has worked with in the past seems to yield results, from Derlei and Nuno Valente, who followed him from his second job at Uniao Leiria to Porto and then later with some of the biggest names in his career, like Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o.
The pattern has repeated itself through every job he has had, with Mourinho consistently going back for the players he trusts. The Portuguese midfielder Maniche, as well as Edgaras Jankauskas played for Mourinho at Benfica, his first management job, before joining him in his third at Porto. He brought Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira to Chelsea from the Porto team with whom he had conquered Europe, later also bringing Maniche on loan - the third club at which the two worked together.
At Inter Milan, Mourinho signed Hernan Crespo on loan, the Argentine striker he had inherited in his first spell at Chelsea, subsequently loaned out and then brought back for the second of his Premier League winning seasons in 2005-2006. At Real Madrid he signed Carvalho again, and the former Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien. When he went back to Chelsea for a second time, Mourinho signed Samuel Eto’o whom he had managed at Inter Milan, and Drogba, whom he first brought to Stamford Bridge in 2004, returned for a season.
Matic’s signing is part of a well-established tradition over Mourinho’s career, although he remains an unusual choice given the way it ended at Chelsea. By the end of 2015, as Chelsea’s Premier League winners fell apart and Mourinho raged at the world, Matic was one of those players whose influence had dwindled badly and in whom his manager’s faith seemed shaken.
The substitution of Matic after 28 minutes in the defeat to Southampton in October 2015, the start of a slide Mourinho could not arrest and two months before his ultimate defenestration, was one of those signals of dysfunction. Matic had come on at half-time and was replaced by the end of the game. He did, however, start the last eight games of Mourinho’s second Chelsea era, including the defeats to Stoke, Bournemouth and finally Leicester.
On Monday, Mourinho was unequivocal about Matic and hinted that the player’s stubbornness had forced Chelsea’s hand. “Nemanja is a Manchester United player and a Jose Mourinho player. He represents everything we want in a footballer; loyalty, consistency, ambition, team player. I would like to thank him for his desire to join us because without that, it would be impossible to have him here. I am sure our players and supporters will love him. A big welcome to our new number 31.”
United have got nowhere with their attempts to sign Eric Dier from Tottenham Hotspur, and there would have been no guarantee that even an offer in excess of £50 million would have changed Daniel Levy’s mind. Mourinho gave United three options for every position that needed strengthening and that Matic was the most achievable of those tells you something about Spurs’ determination to keep Dier.
As ever with Mourinho it is about what works best now. After that Southampton substitution in October 2015, he admitted that Matic was “not playing well, is not sharp defensively and is making mistakes with the ball” but he did say that said that he still trusted him. As with many of those who have won trophies with Mourinho in the past, that turns out still to be the case.