Jose Mourinho on life at Manchester United: Special One reveals his struggles of living away from his family in London while his team continues to struggle
The Old Trafford boss has spoken about the pressure of being on his own while his family are still living in London
IT did not take an Einstein to work out something was wrong with Jose Mourinho.
He has appeared tired, frustrated, irritated. Even before Manchester United failed to perform.
The Special One has not shown much of the lustre that characterised him at his best.
Instead, holed up in a hotel with his family 180 miles away, Mourinho has seemed morose and picky, unhappy at finding a far bigger mess than he had imagined when he agreed to replace Louis van Gaal.
His training-ground behaviour is being questioned.
We have been watching a version of the Mourinho who did not make it to Christmas at Chelsea last season.
Mourinho’s spat with Blues successor Antonio Conte on Sunday, when he complained about the sort of touchline conduct he has enacted time and again, only added to the feeling that all is not well.
Now, after the Portuguese admitted he is finding his lonely life in Manchester “a disaster”, many will question if the Old Trafford boss is not sowing the seeds which could lead to an early exit from the job he craved.
It is one thing to be missing his family — wife Tami and children Matilde and Jose Jnr. That is natural.
Yet the United fans will not be sympathetic, when they hear his public moaning.
Each and every one of them would give anything for the chance to do what he now does.
Mourinho complained: “For the first time the family lives in a different way.
“We try to feel it, we try to see how we cope with the situation. The reality is that my daughter will be 20 next week, my son will be 17 in a couple of months.
“They are very stable. University in London. Football in London. Friends.
“So they are in an age where they can’t chase me like they did before. So for the first time the family lives in a different way.”
Feeling lonely behind closed doors. But all too public when he sets foot outset the luxury Lowry Hotel which he has made his base.
Mourinho added, in a Sky Sports interview: “You know the history of the paparazzi.
“For the hotel and the brand that sponsors me, the clothes brand, it is amazing because they are there every day.
“Everybody knows the name of the hotel! Everybody knows the last arrivals. So for them, it is amazing.
“For me it’s a bit of a disaster because I want sometimes to walk a little bit and I can’t. I just want to cross the bridge and go to a restaurant! I can’t, so it is really bad. I have my apps and I can ask for food to be delivered.
“Buy a house? I do not know. If I find a nice apartment with a good connection from the garage to the apartment, maybe I do it, but I can’t cook!”
Mourinho was snapped sleeping on a train after returning to London on Monday to see his family — just 24 hours after travelling up to Manchester following the Chelsea defeat.
His comments are all a bit rich from a man who has spent his professional life trying to manipulate the media.
While the Portuguese seems to be struggling for friends other than backroom staff, he might have a dining companion, with Pep Guardiola insistent he is ready to break bread with his long-time rival.
Manchester City’s boss said: “Have I met Jose? No. I live in the centre, I don’t know where he lives. But I am pretty sure that if we met in a restaurant, in the city we are going to say ‘hi’ and we are going to talk.”
What they would discuss is less certain and while Guardiola’s dressing room sing his praises, the noise from Carrington has been very different.
Mourinho has fallen out with Bastian Schweinsteiger, upset Michael Carrick and seemingly voiced suspicions over Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Luke Shaw, even before Wayne Rooney’s future became a huge issue.
Now he has been accused by dressing-room sources of becoming a “distant” figure on the training ground, appearing briefly at the start of sessions and then retreating to watch from a distance as assistant Rui Faria puts the squad through their paces.
That is not a dereliction of duty by any standards. Sir Alex Ferguson regularly adopted the approach, Martin O’Neill made it his mantra.
But Mourinho has always been hands-on.
One of the men signed by Mourinho during his second Chelsea spell, keeper Mark Schwarzer, was taken aback.
Schwarzer told : “You hear that he is distant and supposedly not on the training field. I would find that a real big surprise.
“At Chelsea I don’t ever remember him actually missing any training sessions.”
Maybe he has changed. Mourinho left Chelsea seeming diminished. His aura reduced.
Under four months into his United job, he sounds lessened, too.