WITH his arms outstretched, holding the Europa League aloft, Jose Mourinho took the acclaim of Manchester United’s faithful.
The date was May 24, 2017. The venue was the Friends Arena, Stockholm.
At that moment — more than any other in the turbulent 11 years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired — it really did feel like Manchester United were back.
They had faced a young Ajax team who were tipped to showcase the future with their short passing and high pressing against a man some were beginning to write off.
Mourinho out thought his opposite number Peter Bosz who, after the final whistle, would bemoan the tactics United had employed.
They were simple. If they want to press high and pass short we’ll whack it over them onto the head of Marouane Fellaini and he’ll lay it off to Marcus Rashford and go from there.
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It worked a treat, Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan getting the goals in a 2-0 win.
Not long after, in a conversation with former chairman Martin Edwards, he said that the club really believed they were on to something special with Mourinho.
He had already bagged the League Cup that season in what is still probably the most exciting final the new Wembley has seen as United beat Southampton 3-2.
Foreign coaches tend to hold a lot more store by the Community Shield, or Super Cups as they are called abroad, so Mourinho was happy to claim a treble as he got his players to hold up three fingers at the final whistle in Stockholm.
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On the team plane on the way home he was pictured laughing and joking with Pogba, the player who helped lead to his demise less than two years later.
At the start of that season Mourinho was being written off as a United boss after a 1-0 away loss to Feyenoord sandwiched between defeats to Manchester City and Watford.
Yet it had been on the eve of that Feyenoord clash late at night outside a hotel in Rotterdam that Mourinho was returning from dinner with his staff and happened across three of us in the Manchester press pack.
Asked for a chat, he came over and explained, off the record, what he was having to do to unpick the Louis van Gaal football to create his own brand.
His football brand that was a step up from the drudgery under Van Gaal although not always popular with the United faithful.
But they liked him, and the fact he won, he gave United standing again, an image, they felt big.
True that first Premier League season did not go well as they came sixth.
Asked for a chat, he came over and explained, off the record, what he was having to do to unpick the Louis van Gaal football to create his own brand.
But he had worked out late in the campaign the Europa League would provide the easier route back into the Champions League and cleverly rotated his squad accordingly.
The following season he boasted it was one his greatest-ever achievements to lead United to Premier League runners-up spot behind City.
He would deny the neighbours claiming the title on derby day as the Red Devils came back from 2-0 down at the Etihad to win 3-2.
It was Pogba’s only good game. It is often forgotten that Mourinho also led the Red Devils to an FA Cup final that season going down 1-0 to Chelsea in the final.
So it was all heading in the right direction as the season ended. Then came the summer in LA and we all realised something was not right.
In a building at their training base in UCLA he was asked an innocent question as to whether he thought he had the squad to now go a step further and challenge for the title.
He replied: “I cannot answer that question.” Eyebrows were raised.
Later in the tour he would be seen in the foyer of a stadium snarling down the phone ‘it’s s**t, s**t’. Uh-oh.
It seems an unsuccessful pursuit of Harry Maguire was part of it but his relationship with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward was fracturing.
Nobody wanted this all to unravel but the unravelling had started.
He refused to engage in the traditional on-tour relaxed interview with the English media that every United boss has done. And saw criticism and injustice which was not there.
The meltdown continued after a 3-0 home loss to Spurs he demanded ‘respect, respect respect’ from the media because he had won three titles.
By the club’s Champions League exit to Valencia, he was questioning whether United had a ‘football heritage’ in Europe.
Later in the tour he would be seen in the foyer of a stadium snarling down the phone ‘it’s s**t, s**t’. Uh-oh.
Less than a week later, after a 3-1 defeat at Liverpool he was gone.
“How on earth did it get to that point?” I asked Woodward later. He suggested if I had had to work with Mourinho, I would have known.
He has never been easy. But as he sits in his Four Seasons’ suite on the banks of the Bosphorus tonight he will be planning to bring down his former club in the Europa League.
There are already murmurings of unrest at his new club Fenerbahce.
But United and Erik ten Hag know he is the man for the big occasion.
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He has only lost five times against United as the opposition manager. He remains special.
In years to come United fans may look back and realise that — for two years under him — it was special, too.
Ten Hag’s five worst defeats
ERIK TEN HAG has suffered some heavy defeats during his tenure as Manchester United manager.
5. Copenhagen 4-3 Man Utd, November 2023
The damaging defeat saw the Red Devils dumped out of the Champions League.
4. Man Utd 0-3 Bournemouth, December 2023
It was the first time the Cherries had ever won at Old Trafford with the players being booed off.
3. Brentford 4-0 Man Utd, August 2022
Perhaps a sign of things to come, in Ten Hag’s second Premier League game, his side was dismantled by the Bees.
2. Crystal Palace 4-0 Man Utd, May 2024
The heavy defeat to the Eagles saw the Dutchman edge ever closer to the sack.
1. Liverpool 7-0 Man Utd, March 2023
Man Utd were embarrassed at the hands of their bitter rivals as they crumbled at Anfield as it was the club’s worst defeat in 92 years.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
