If Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho is sacked this week after Saturday’s 3-1 defeat away to West Ham United, Ed Woodward, the club’s chief executive, should go as well.
Woodward was the man responsible for hiring Mourinho in the first place, a coach, who contrary to the whole ethos of the club and its history, does nothing for youth development and is useless at long-term planning, having never lasted over three years at any club.
This is before you even get into his defensive tactics that are alien to United’s traditionally attacking and entertaining style of play.
Expecting the Portuguese to somehow be the magic wand to United’s woes — after Mou’s track record, and the disaster of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal (who Woodward employed as well) — was hopeful to say the least.
Woodward bought into the man and the myth a little too easily and now he is reaping what he has sown.
Known for his quick success, Mourinho partly achieved that by winning the League Cup and the Europa League with United in his first season in 2016/17, but unless you are going to continue fuelling that beast with money — something hardly-sustainable Mou needs much of — then the only inevitable conclusion is disaster.
That is exactly what is happening now, and Woodward is to blame, he was the guy who hired Mourinho, gave him a contract extension well ahead of schedule at the start of this year until 2020, and then decided to veto new signings this summer as soon as Mourinho needed a centre-back.
If you are committed to a project with a manager, however flawed, you have to see it through or part ways, perhaps staving off on that unnecessary early contract renewal. But now, Woodward has tightened the purse strings and we are left at an impasse.
The Red Devils are 10th in the league after losing three and drawing one of their first seven games. They may be top of their Champions League group after an opening win over Young Boys of Switzerland, but they now play Valencia at home on Tuesday in a game that could be Mou’s last.
There’s already talk of former Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane being lined-up to replace Mourinho, but unless you get rid of Woodward as well, it’s going to be a similar story in two-to-three years without much success in between.
Zidane was given whatever he needed to make Real work, and it was already a behemoth, unlike flailing United. Without much experience of firefighting, the Frenchman, who only properly started as a coach with Real in 2016, will struggle.
Football is not about one man, but the team around him, and for that reason the buck shouldn’t stop with Mou.
