The Star ­ Monday
Date: 15.05.2017
Page 39
Article size: 370 cm2
ColumnCM: 82.22
AVE: 144711.11
MOURINHO WILL BE SPECIALIST IN
FAILORE IF HE LOSES EOROPA FINAL
Manchester United boss desperate for victory over Ajax Amsterdam in
Stockholm as he seeks to rectify a difficult first season at Old Trafford
Tt is easy to be curmudgeonly about what Jose Mourinho embarrassed about it. Mourinho suggested the competition
has achieved at Manchester United this season.
was very much below him then. He was a Champions League
With his constant whining, his relentless narcissism, kind of guy. But the Europa League is not a dud competition,
his stream of excuses, his attacks on Luke Shaw — a player whatever Mourinho once said. The last four winners have
who nearly lost his career playing in United's colours — been Sevilla, Chelsea, Atletico Madrid and Porto. Bad teams
and his general lack of grace, he is not an easy manager to love. don't win it and apart from their scare against Celta Vigo on
Compare him with Antonio Conte, who has taken English Thursday night, United's progress to the final in Stockholm has
football by storm this season, and he looks sour and stale.
been relatively serene.
The same if you put him next to Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp.
So winning the competition would soothe away the
His United team have lacked the energy and dynamism of the shortcomings of this troubled first season. Beat Ajax, and
best teams. For a manager who has achieved so much, he once the dismay about United spending most of this campaign
again has much to prove. In many ways, United have stood still languishing in the table as the sixth of the Big Six will be
this season. Some might even say they have gone backwards. forgotten. Rightly so. Winning the Europa League will obscure
They are unlikely now to match the fourth place in the Premier United's season­long battle to rise above mediocrity.
League that Louis van Gaal led
United are a club built on their great European legends, on
their pioneering adventures in the European Cup when the FA
were discouraging participation, on the great tragedy of the
Trafford. As things stand, they are
Munich air disaster and the emotional triumph against Benfica
struggling to equal the fifth place
at Wembley in 1968, which remains English club football's
the doomed Dutchman achieved
most moving and dramatic narrative.
last season.
European triumph is woven into the club's fabric and the
United's former captain,
Europa League, once the UEFA Cup, is the only major trophy
Roy Keane, said last week that
they have not won. To close the circle would be another symbol
United's position in the league,
of the club's standing in the world game. That was why the
now 22 points behind leaders United Review for the Vigo game featured a front cover with
Chelsea, is 'embarrassing'. Mourinho's emphasis on defence pictures of all the trophies United have won arranged as a
made them difficult to beat, as a 25­game run without defeat jigsaw, with the Europa League ready to slide into place. 'The
attests, but it made them look ponderous and dull beside Final Piece', the headline said.
Beat Ajax and Mourinho will be able to ride the wave all the
Chelsea and Spurs.
It is surprising that a manager of Mourinho's pedigree has not way through to the start of next season and beyond. Beat Ajax
done better. It is not as if he has been short of cash. The Glazer and United will be in the Champions League again, making
family has already backed him generously. United's executive it easier to sign football's elite without paying a grotesque
vice­chairman, Ed Woodward, has taken over from Peter premium to an agent. Beat Ajax, and this season that is about to
Ridsdale as English football's undisputed Father Christmas. For close will be lent a happy sheen. It will feel like a building block
references, ask agent Mino Raiola.
Mourinho spent £f45m (Shl9.2bn) on Eric Bailly, Henrikh
to restoring United to their
Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba last summer to bolster United's
place challenging for the very
squad. The least that most United fans expected was a top­four
top honours in the club game.
It is a fine achievement to
finish. That Mourinho is struggling to deliver that has been a
have reached the final but
grave disappointment.
It was in that context that Mourinho was asked on Friday
everybody in football knows
whether this season would count as a failure if United did
how quickly the excitement
of that achievement turns in
not win the Europa League against Ajax in Stockholm a week
on itself if the team don't win.
on Wednesday. Well, of course it would. Even Mourinho
acknowledged 'the media have a right to say it and it makes
Excitement turns quickly to
sense to say it'. A more interesting question might have been
disillusion. Suddenly, getting
whether United's season would count as a failure even if they
second is nothing. And then the
them to in his first season at Old
do win it.
to the final is forgotten and
The Europa League is an unlikely source of salvation for the recriminations begin.
United boss. It is, after all. a competition he has poured scorn
Lose to Ajax and Mourinho will face a lot of awkward
on in the past, particularly when his bitter rival, Rafa Benitez, questions. Lose to Ajax and the succour of a place in the
won it for Chelsea in Amsterdam in 20f3.
Champions League will probably be lost. Lose to Ajax and
English football regards the Europa League with a strange Mourinho will be under pressure from the start of next season.
snobbery and Chelsea were derided, as much as praised, And history tells us he does not react well to that kind of
when they won it. It was almost as if they should have been pressure.
Ipsos Kenya ­ Acorn House,97 James Gichuru Road ­ Lavington ­ Nairobi ­ Kenya
The Star ­ Monday
Date: 15.05.2017
Page 39
Article size: 370 cm2
ColumnCM: 82.22
AVE: 144711.11
It would be interesting to know whether Mourinho
appreciates the irony of the situation. So much rests on whether
he wins a competition he once scorned. If United come up
short then on the basis of this season, he will find it hard to
complain if someone calls him a specialist in failure.
BY OLIVER HOLT
Ipsos Kenya ­ Acorn House,97 James Gichuru Road ­ Lavington ­ Nairobi ­ Kenya