Jose Mourinho has spent £300m at Manchester United… now he needs to stop moaning and get his mojo back
SunSport takes a look at how Old Trafford chief has invested £300million over the last 18 months
ONE can only imagine the reaction of Ed Woodward and the Glazers when word filtered through of their miserly spend of £300million.
That is Jose Mourinho’s outlay since taking the reins of power at Manchester United 18 months ago.
Yet still he says it is not enough if they want to catch up with arch-rivals Manchester City.
Executive vice chairman Woodward, in particular, will have every reason to raise his eyebrows.
It was he alone who laid it on the line to the Glazers that money and big money needed to be spent in the wake of Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.
He got them to spend it too, more than £600m of it on 22 players since Fergie went, with big wages being paid out as well.
Latest Manchester United news
All a boss can do is back his manager and try to land his targets.
To be fair to Mourinho his recruitment has not been all bad.
SPENT FORCE Manchester United have spent £600m on 22 players since Fergie left but are still nowhere near City
He had to fight off Real Madrid to get Paul Pogba and before his recent three-game ban he had become a major influence on this side.
Eric Bailly was a great buy from Villarreal at £30m and has been a huge miss since his ankle injury ruled him out of action.
Victor Lindelof has yet to impress but Mourinho is convinced the £31m defender will grow into one of the best centre-backs in the country when he gets more accustomed to the Premier League.
Nemanja Matic was seen as a steal at £40m from Jose’s former club Chelsea, while it is still too early for the jury to return a verdict on the £75m spent on Romelu Lukaku.
His contribution remains high even when he is not hitting the target, but he must score more.
Last season, Mourinho persuaded Zlatan Ibrahimovic to join United on a free and the return was 28 goals.
However the Swede is all but finished now after that serious knee injury robbed him of nine months.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been the big flop at £30m.
The problem was what Mourinho inherited — and the £250million wasted by Louis van Gaal.
Ander Herrera, Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo, Matteo Darmian and Daley Blind are all bang average by United’s standards.
Memphis Depay, Angel Di Maria and Bastian Schweinsteiger came and went in a flash of mediocrity.
It has been very different across in the blue half of Manchester.
Pep Guardiola has lavished £361m on what was already a fabulous team.
His major stars Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Raheem Sterling were all there to work with when he arrived. All of them would walk into United’s team.
You could go back to Ferguson’s final years even for the root of the problem at United.
The net spend over his final four seasons was around £40m. That last team of his was dragged to the title by his will and the spirit he had instilled at the club, while other clubs around him imploded.
But it was not a great team bestowed on David Moyes, it was one that was coming to their end with very little coming through.
The scouting and recruitment network compared to many other clubs was antiquated when Moyes took over as everything was stored in Sir Alex’s head rather than on a network of computers.
So really, United are still playing catch up from his departure.
The time to get Mourinho was then.
He is still the best man for this job. Up until last season he was the only one to deny Pep a title as he did with Real Madrid.
But what he needs to do is stop moaning and get his mojo back. Last season he would talk about how much he loved this group of players and the amazing support of the fans.
He wrote in one set of programme notes last February: “We have a squad full of quality players and top professionals.”
And it was a good first season as he calculated winning the Europa League would be an easier route than the Premier League back into the Champions League.
He picked up the EFL Cup as well in one of the new Wembley’s best domestic finals. The fans were on the up, the club was on the up, former chairman Martin Edwards said he thought they were on to something special again.
And they are still second in the league, ten points better off than at this stage last season, and into the knockout rounds of the Champions League.
But it feels flat and that comes from the boss. The mood of the club and the team comes from the manager.
This season he has questioned the support from United’s faithful.
Then on Boxing Day, most damningly of all, came this: “One thing is a big club and another thing is a big football team, and we are in a second year of trying to rebuild a football team that you know is not one of the best teams in the world.”
Hardly an inspiring call to arms for the current squad. He has proven in the past that he can lift teams to great heights as he did with Porto and Inter Milan.
The passion and tactical genius he showed in leading both clubs to European glory was incredible.
More than that, he made them believe they were good enough.
His words and demeanour now sends the message that this team simply is not.
He needs to lift them and most of all he needs to lift himself. He needs to find the old Jose, only then might he find the old United.