Jose Mourinho has destroyed a great football club leaving behind a dressing room of bang average players
HE lost games and he had lost the respect of his dressing room.
This morning the Special One lost his job.
He had to go.
Jose Mourinho, deep into this third year as Manchester United manager, was destroying a great football club.
Sunday’s lamentable performance at Anfield, when they were beaten up and beaten 3-1 Liverpool, confirmed that.
This was a public shaming, with this players taught a lesson by a genuine title contender.
Liverpool finished that game 19 points ahead of their great rivals.
It is not good enough.
Mourinho, with three Premier League titles to show from his time at Chelsea, was supposed be the master of his art.
He was always quick to remind people of is remarkable trophy haul.
He won three at United, including the Community Shield against Leicester in his first game, during his first season at the club.
Beyond that, he could not build.
He fell out with star players and made a raft of dreadful, below par signings.
His relationship with Paul Pogba deteriorated, with the midfielder barely speaking to the Special One.
Next permanent Manchester United boss
Michael Carrick – 1/2
Zinedine Zidane – 3/1
Nicky Butt – 8/1
Antonio Conte – 10/1
Leonardo Jardim – 16/1
Mauricio Pochettino – 20/1
Paolo Sousa – 25/1
Eddie Howe – 33/1
Alexis Sanchez, the player Mourinho promised would come good when he forced Ed Woodward to sign him from under the noses of Manchester City, has been a disaster.
So has Mourinho’s career as Manchester United manager.
He has been picking fights with everybody, starting feuds and seemingly at war with the world again.
It cost him his job, with United pulling the plug before he could have another crack at winning the Champions League.
They drew Paris Saint-Germain yesterday and nobody gave this United team a chance of keeping Neymar, Mpabbe and Cavani quiet.
United have silenced Mourinho for the time being, firing him after falling so far behind Liverpool and Manchester City.
He left behind a dressing room full of average footballers ambling towards a mid-table finish.
In the weeks to come they will have to improve, to show the world that playing for United is something special.
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They did for him, going through the motions in his final weeks in charge with a series of lacklustre, pedestrian performances to make it clear they wanted him out.
By then, everybody did.