UK Edition
Jose Mourinho: I want to win everything with Man Utd this season
Despite his declarations of happiness, love for his squad and the odd cheerful moment, like when he joked with a posse of bald reporters that he has no difficulty changing hairstyles on the day he paraded a bold new crew cut, there were plenty of occasions last season when a glum-faced Jose Mourinho looked anything but satisfied with life at Manchester United.
Trailed persistently by hungry paparazzi camped outside The Lowry Hotel, which he still calls home, 200 miles from his family in London, unafraid to scold players in public and at loggerheads with the authorities over a chaotic fixture schedule that he felt undermined any real hopes of his team being competitive in the Premier League title race, the Portuguese often cut a burdened, brooding figure.
It all felt very different at United’s Carrington training ground on Friday, though. His underlying frustration that United have so far failed to land the wide player he craves aside, a decidedly relaxed Mourinho was in jocular mood.
He had given his players the morning off but was joking that, even then, he had been so busy he had not been able to find time for a cup of tea and was looking forward to clocking off in time to make the short journey back to his hotel suite to watch Arsenal take on Leicester in the season opener.
“I look forward to the season with optimism, with enthusiasm,” Mourinho announced. “I want to play. I want to play West Ham on Sunday, a difficult match. Then I want to go to Swansea, a difficult match. Then I want the Champions League to start. I want, I want! … I’m on fire … But I will behave on the touchline!”
There was an impish, mischievous glint in Mourinho’s eye as he referenced his touchline behaviour, and while it was generally very good during the second half of last season after a series of early incidents when he concluded, after being collared for kicking a water bottle, that there is one rule for him and another for everyone else, who knows what might materialise over the next 10 months?
The Manchester United manager has been no stranger to winning titles in his debut seasons at clubs but the second year is traditionally the moment he makes his move. He has won the domestic championship in the second season at every one of his previous clubs, and while no one should underestimate the scale of the challenge he faced in successfully toppling Barcelona in 2011-12, his Real Madrid side had only one rival to worry about. Here there are five.
Mourinho was happy to trumpet the qualities of all, even making a point of lavishing praise on his long-standing adversaries Pep Guardiola and Arsene Wenger. “Manchester City have a fantastic manager, great spending, already very good players,” Mourinho said. “They’re equipped. I think Tottenham, without spending, are equipped to win the title because they have a fantastic team, fantastic manager, great stability.
“Arsenal the same. A great, experienced manager, the same team. They didn’t sell, as some were expecting, players like Mesut Ozil, Alexis [Sanchez]. They’re equipped. Liverpool, they’re equipped. Chelsea is the champion, lost some players, bought some players, they’re equipped. So it’s difficult to say which of us is better equipped. I just think the competition can be better than ever.”
As for United, Mourinho admits he could do with another transfer window before the squad is sculpted exactly to his requirements but he expressed far more conviction about their title prospects this term than 12 months ago. At the very least, his imposing team should be hard to beat. “I was thinking three transfer windows, I need that,” he said. “But two transfer windows, a good group, a club that is much better equipped, much better organised in the areas that support the first-team squad.
“We are much better organised at every level – the medical department is better, the structure that organises the logistics is much better. The training routines are much better organised. We are much stronger as a team. I feel the club is much better so we go for it this season. We’re going to try to win the title. We’re going to try to give a hard fight to the top teams in Europe in the Champions League and, as you know, I always loved the English cups.”
The signing that has perhaps emboldened Mourinho the most is Nemanja Matic, not just because the Serb’s £40 million arrival from Chelsea weakens a direct rival but because he will offer a control, consistency and physicality at the base of the midfield that, aside from bringing greater balance to the side, could help to liberate Paul Pogba.
Indeed, if United are to get the best out of Pogba this season playing on the counter-attack as Mourinho intends, the success that Matic has anchoring the midfield and Romelu Lukaku and Henrikh Mkhitaryan enjoy in providing a mobile outlet in attack will be crucial.
“When I joined last year I thought immediately that we needed a kind of Matic but there are not many,” Mourinho said. “But I was not thinking of it because I always thought I never like to go to players that are the impossible mission and I felt there is no chance [of Chelsea selling him].
“When this season I got the call that Matic wants to play for me, wants to play for Man United and we can make it happen, I thought, ‘it’s the perfect player for me’. Not just for his qualities but also for my relationship with him, the way I know him. He’s one of those players with no question marks in front. He doesn’t need time to adapt to England. He’s one of those players that gives me what I like in players, which is consistency. So I think he was a fantastic signing for us.”
Mourinho is primed and waiting.