Jose Mourinho is still the Premier League’s best manager but Mauricio Pochettino is the Great Pretender
Phil Thomas says the Manchester United boss will be right to shrug off the latest round of snipes as he takes on Tottenham's bright young thing at Old Trafford.
JOSE MOURINHO has been the man they love to hate for so long he will not let the latest round of snipes worry him now.
He has lived with it since he went galloping down the touchline of his future Old Trafford home after Porto ground out a famous Champions League triumph in 2004.
He has heard it all almost every season since. Boring, the architect of anti-football, a winner but always at the price of entertainment.
Ignore the silverware, it has never been done with style. You name it, the accusations have been levelled at him.
The latest comes thanks to today’s Premier League showstopper, when Mauricio Pochettino brings Tottenham to town.
It pits the Great against the Great Pretender — and for many sees the man who should have replaced Louis van Gaal coming to a club he should already be calling home.
There is no doubt that of all the young managers around, Poch has more going for him than most.
If you had to pick any boss in Europe likely to become the next big thing, it would be the Spurs gaffer.
Only a fool would back against him bringing major honours back to North London at some stage and his list of achievements there is already pretty impressive.
No club has the feelgood factor pulsing throughout more than Spurs.
It is hard to think of one with a closer bond between players and fans.
He has overseen the development of Harry Kane from potential to potency. From young hopeful to one of Europe’s deadliest marksmen.
He has a desire to open the first-team door for other young wannabes like Harry Winks and Kyle Walker-Peters, to unearth lower league gems like Dele Alli.
He is a man with huge tactical nous, as he showed when he stunned even his own players with the approach which earned a Champions League point at Real Madrid.
And he is also a man who no less than Sir Alex Ferguson dubbed as the best manager in the Prem, in the final knockings of LVG’s ill-fated reign.
The pair were even pictured dining together before the Dutchman’s appointment.
It is Ferguson’s glowing reference which has many of the experts nodding wisely and insisting United appointed the wrong man when they plumped for Mourinho.
Really? On what basis? Clearly not on honours won. Clearly not on facts, for all Poch’s teams have played attractive stuff.
But is Jose as negative as some claim? The same man as the one whose Real Madrid set a Spanish record of 121 goals in a season when he led them to La Liga.
The man who players from Steven Gerrard to Frank Lampard to Zlatan Ibrahimovic — pre United — rate as arguably the best in the world.
And do not try to decry his Real tally because of his squad.
Most were there before and after him, yet no one else managed it. Nor did the Barcelona team many rate as the greatest side ever.
This season the Mourinho knockers seem to be basing their argument on a woeful display at Liverpool, which it was, compounded by last week’s miserable defeat at newly-promoted Huddersfield.
Yet people seem to have forgotten the dismal displays under Fergie. Poor performances, only saved by a late winner against the likes of Wolves or Sheffield United.
And all those games when they would go one up against, say, Arsenal, put up two banks of four and say ‘get through that’. Oh, and another little fact. For all the anti-Jose brigade may hate it, United have actually scored three more league goals than free-flowing Tottenham.
And before Spurs stuffed Liverpool last week, their one win in four home games was an edgy 1-0 one over Bournemouth.
For all Mourinho was slaughtered for his side’s approach at Anfield, United are a better team to watch than at any stage since Fergie left.
Indeed, probably more attractive than in Sir Alex’s final season, if truth be told, even though it ended with a record-extending 20th title. They are faster, quicker, more incisive on the counter. The signings have been impressive.
His problem is United are battling their closest rivals — and most accept it is between the two Manchester clubs for the title — when they are playing the best football in their history.
At United, the pressure is on to win things, not to go close. With style, preferably, but after the desolate seasons post-Fergie, the heat is on to win things regularly again.
Jose managed it with two major trophies in his first year. Not with stunning football, but a return to Champions League via glory in Europe’s lesser competition was enough.
Mourinho, in a nutshell, has won eight league titles in four countries, two Champions Leagues — plus another 13 cups amid 25 trophies.
He is a triple Premier League manager of the year, and a former Fifa World Coach of the Year.
Poch has won four Manager of the Month awards and mounted two title challenges — both of which fell away.
He has great potential, he is easier to like than Mourinho, but he ain’t the Special One Mk II just yet.
When Fergie claimed Poch was the best boss in the country, back in February 2016, he was probably right.
But just one thing all those fawning acolytes would do well to remember.
Mourinho was not working in it at the time.
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