Jose Mourinho has sung the praises of Sir Alex Ferguson and has also ruled out a move to the Premier League any time soon.
“I think football will lose a lot when he stops and there are not young managers and old managers,” he said. “For me, he’s the boss. I call him the boss because he’s the boss of the coaches and I hope that when I go back to English football he still manages Man United. I have a four-year contract with Real. I signed it and when I signed it I signed it because I wanted to be in Real Madrid in this period of my career and I don’t think in another club. I just say openly that for many reasons after this project, the next step will be England for many reasons, but when? I don’t know, I don’t have an idea and I am so happy to be in this moment as manager of the best club in the world.”
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Good on all counts. Fergie is the boss. And don’t want Mourinho anywhere near this club.
The viruses supporters expressing their unhappiness at the way mou leads their club might have done little to the little magician, to a point he said enough is enough.
We want mourinho
He is a winner and we need him
Best club my ass. Funded by a dictator, yesterdays City.
Seems to me he’s angling for the UTD hot seat once SAF calls time…for better or worse imo, but the best players want to play for him and if he’s interested you’d be hardpressed not to consider him…they say nobody wants to follow a legend but he certainly believes he’s elite & in mourinho’s mind this wud be the next great challenge especially if he can bring la decima to Madrid in two years time
I remember that hug. Just before Fletcher’s goal beat them.
He may have to get out of town if CR7 is able to hold Madrid ransom on a new contract…but if u ask me if u want unreal money go to dagestan
He is such a hypocrite, slimy thing this guy is unbelievable, he’s lining us up as his next ‘project’ with every chance; latest before this one was his ott celebrations against shitty the other day on ronnies winner. Honestly, he is so not genuine we should stay miles away from anywhere near him. Anyway he needs bags of money to put a goodside together so I hope our lot at the top and saf see thru all this rubbish of his. Go off to shitty u scum!
Love him or hate him, he’s won everywhere he’s gone. Is he a pompus ass? Yup. Does he think the world revolves around him? Absolutely. Any talk of “he’s walked into stacked teams” ends at Porto. Players play for him, no question about that. Do I think he could be a successful manager at United? Yes, actually I do. Compile a list of necessary chracteristics/traits/qualities a possible SAF successor will need to possess, honestly an unbiasedly go through today’s current crop of managers and you would find he ticks more boxes than others on the often discussed “short list.”
Just my two cents and I understand United fans claiming they’d “never want him anywhere near the Old Trafford dug out,” but, I’d have no reservations penning a deal when the Ol’ Footy Knight calls it a day. One could say he never stays around one team long enough but perhaps, like many of today’s footballers, their “dream is to ply their trade at _________ (insert famed club here.)” Mourinho’s legacy, should he ever successfully come anywhere close to SAF’s record at Old Trafford, would peg him amongst football’s greatest. He knows it and I’d bet the bank that’s exactly what his grand vision entails. Time will tell, opinions would be split, judgements would be reserved but I’d give him a shot over any of the other “qualified” candidates.
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In comparison, I hated Drogba for a decade but man would he have been dangerous donning a Red Devil kit. Never cared much for Van Persie, to be honest, he was an Arsenal player and I hated the cunt, but it’s an ingenuine hate, the kind that stems from a certain amount of respect. I respect what Mourinho, Drogba, Van Persie etc can do. They are match winners and to see them on the other side of the pitch clouds judgement as to what they could do for OUR club.
Once again, two cents (winces in atnicipation of backlash)
He will ditch us at a stroke when the next ‘project’ comes along. Besides that, in terms of football if we want to see United playing cagy then let’s go for him.
I like Mourinho, he’s a winner, but I don’t know if he can do it in the long term. He’s a bit of a one night stand manager, great at getting in there and getting his end away, not too great at sticking around and helping with the house work.
Moyes would be a good fit for us. Got eye for a bargain, can motivate and has something of Fergie about him. Plus he’s his own man. He doesn’t look like he takes any shit.
@ CyRed
I get the “next project” side of it. Ronaldo had a “next project” too. Doesn’t mean we didn’t embrace him and achieve the highest of highs while he was here. Perhaps United IS Mourinho’s “dream.” More directly, following in SAF’s footsteps would be the greatest achievement any modern day manager could accomplish imo. What’s next after that?
And before we dismiss him based on “cagy” football, I’d like your take on what exactly we were trying to accomplish away to City last April.
It is strange to think of Mourinho carrying on the legacy of Sir Alex. Like it or not after Sir Alex we will need somebody with a degree of self assurance and/or arrogance to ensure he doesn’t get crushed by the sheer comparison. The issue with Mourinho is two fold. Does he have the ability to blood and then stick with youngsters the way we have grown used to? I know he has brought in a few youngsters at Madrid but its nowhere near the same really, and that leads onto the fact that he has never actually rebuilt a team. The ruthlessness and commitment Sir Alex has shown in moving beyond past successes while building for the future is something unique, and will be essential for anyone looking to follow him.
The other issue with Mourinho is of course his nomadic streak. If he is offered the Portugal job, a strong possibility, then he might end up leaving us in the lurch. And continuity is all important.
As for the motormouth issue, that is something i feel he builds up to protect the players, and the British press lapped it up anyways. Beyond that there are characters on the board such as Sir Bobby Charlton and presumably Sir Alex as well, once he retires, who will make him aware of what sort of standard is expected at United.
I can’t stand the bastard. I don’t care how often he kisses the gaffer’s arse.
There’s much to dislike, even despise, about Mourinho. But STR summed it up best when he said “he might be a cunt, but at least he’d be our cunt”. Something like that. The guy is a serial winner. Important factor for me: he clearly doesn’t take any shit from his players, yet those same players sing his praises high and low. Even ex-players would crawl over broken glass for him.
I reckon the United hierarchy will want him. We all expect our two knights to have a huge say in who replaces Sir Alex, and Sir Alex himself is a known admirer of Mou. Certainly the owners will want him, because of his record. As for Mou himself, he’ll want to come for one simple reason: replacing Sir Alex, while keeping United at the forefront of world football over the long term, will be the biggest job in football. Perhaps the biggest job in the history of football management, because everyone thinks it is mission impossible. And that’s a challenge Mourinho couldn’t resist.
correction, Fergie USED to blood youngsters..
ididnotzeeit says:
And before we dismiss him based on “cagy” football, I’d like your take on what exactly we were trying to accomplish away to City last April.
The only more embarrassing display than the City away game last season was Saturday’s first half..
If morinho can hold down the real Madrid job for his whole contract I would accept him on our turf. If he’s coming to England he’s going to win things with us or with someone else. I’d rather it was us.
“he’s a serial winner”. I’m sure loads more managers would roll in the titles if you get bottomless pit of extravagant budget every year.
Agreed. I don’t see how United can afford the squad that Mou would need to succeed. Not to mention, the unwillingness to blood in any youth.
Mou will only be successful at City.
SAF will someday sooner then most realize. Ride off into the setting Red Sun. As soon as this April, almost for sure the next year if not. 3 years a real stretch.
Stocking the shelves for the next man full of young talent!
A winter window purchase or two.
Oh by the way Rooney what a player. Magic, makes others better.
Prime Time Wazza! 26 soon to be 27.
Let go your hate Man Utd fan, see what he does for the club. A whisker or 2 away from 6 straight PL titles. Chelski odd goal!! Tied on points lost on goal difference. 3 of 4 year run in CL final. Runs till he pukes.
Wee Toms Ligaments – we are not exactly blooding youth either, as RVP is a perfect example, and relying on scholes giggs and ferdinand at times
FITB – Too true. Biggest frustration to date. Clevs and Ando have shown that the time is right. I just hope that Sir Alex has the strength to let the kids play. And maybe even lose.
F.i.t.b – I totally disagree with the concept of fergie not blooding youngsters. He doesn’t some of them ready for the pressure of the top level, when they step up, he’ll play them, that’s his and united’s philosophy. If he bought van persie, he’s buying to utilise the dutch man NOW not build him up as part of another batch of fledgeling so his age and pricetag is irrelevant, he was bought to do thr damage now, time will tell if he does.
Pointing fingers at fergie, the flying scotman has laid down foundations for united to thrive on while he’s in charge and hopefully beyond. Something mourinho can only dream of emulating.
@samuel, he’ll only do the damage if we give him the ball..
THIS IS SAF`s LAST YEAR – YOU CAN BET YOUR HOUSE ON IT.
The stand is already named, the statue is being made as I write.
Its over, he may loiter as mentor for a year or he may just sit in the stands on his heated seat like he did for the first half against Tottenham.
So who is coming to replace him.
Mourinho could definitely cope straight away.
Guardiola has the CV and the “not Mourinho” factor and could cope straight away.
Laurent Blanc is a much stronger candidate than people realise and already knows the club.
……………… David Moyes would be the cheapest of all the options so will probably get the job.
That will not work out well for us. It is an enormous step up and he would struggle to cope.
@Wee Toms Ligaments..
Agree. The key is to let them play this season as much as possible and close our retirement home.
Sure, they’ll make mistakes and lose some, but it would prove whether they can grow and rip shit apart given enough time to prove a point.
Do I see Mourinho wanting to take this club on for twenty years, becoming the patriarch of the greatest football institution in the world? No. Do I see him as a total bastard? Yes. Do I see us maybe taking him on for four years and seeing him win a couple of titles with us? Yes.
And to be honest I would prefer that for Mourinho. Get him in for a few years, bag us a few trophies, because you know he can do a job, and let the successors to the long term crown show their mettle.
I don’t think we should expect, or necessarily want, to go from one managerial dynasty straight into a second. Take the proven winner, pick up a cup or two, then when he moves on, then we look for the next God. And when we find him? Be prepared to win fuck all for a good long time (in United winning nothing years).
samuel – united WE stand – anderson and cleverly are not exactly gambles, and just to up united’s tempo, play these 2 while they are fit. I do not understand how cleverly is now not playing games, scholes I have had NP with playing, but playing giggs now. And seeing the physical condition of ferdinand get exposed on saterday, is a big wake up call. Like I say, I do not see the difference in how fergie does things to mourinho
Adam – if we didn’t give him the ball, doubt he’d be top league scorer. The issue is not about creativity, the issue is to have legs in midfield to match the intensity of the opposition. Right combination, an improvement in form and players stepping up.could help.
fergie is the boss says:
I think Scholes should be released towards the end of the game to slow and control the game and see it out not starting …
F.i.t.b – I agree on the likes of anderson and clev. Time to give them sustained run in the side to gain confidence and form but They also have to show fergie reliability, if they step up, giggs and scholes will be eased out.
samuel – united WE stand says:
IMO he’s still very isolated and could produce double of what’s on his scoresheet now if we can get our act together, especially in midfield.. but consistency is a big factor as well, as he’ll need to gel together with our players and a constant guessing game in the lineup/formation isn’t going to help..
The question is, can united afford to cater mourinho’s needs. If he arrives, he’ll come with a promise of bucket loads of money, there will be repercussions for this instant success that I can’t really be bothered to list again.
One cannot question Mourinho’s credentials. Only ‘chosen’ few can match his achivements. But, i dont want him to be the ‘one’ to replace SAF. His philosophy of achieving success is totaly opposite of what Man utd stands for. There are some things in this world which money just cant buy….for everthing else there is Mastercard, Mancini n the ‘special one’
He does not bring young players through.
I hope Kagawa will play a roaming LM with Rooney and RVP up top.
This desire to bunch the middle with our LM under utilizes Nani – his speed is of no value with so many bodies in the way – and it exposes Youngs overly cautious flat/backwards passing.
I think Kagawa has shown a touch and awareness to play the CAM. Maybe we should stick Rooney and RVP up top and run a more balanced CM pairing (Clevs and Ando) to help cover for a drifting Kagawa?
I still think a 4-4-2 with a touch line hugging LM will get United back to winning ways. But it only works if the 2 CM can run. And run. And run.
Hmm, who did Mourinho buy while he was at Inter?
Fergie is the boss, absolutely!
But, what is the hint from his message? Which club he want to join? Chelsea, City?
Maybe Maurinho just wanted to say that he doeesnt want to join United.
Fergie has already talked to guardiola who currently does not have a club which makes a lot of sense, I’d love to see guardiola manage united
@Marq
You are on fire lately fella.
Mourinho is a winner, he is a master of building teams that can be succesfull in short period. I don’t know if he can do it long term, but who knows. He, like everyone else can change, I wouldn’t mind him at OT. People saying he can’t be like SAF, NO ONE can be like SAF, he is one of his own. English football or European football for that matter will never see a person like SAF grace the sport again. That might not be a bad thing either, do united really need the same coach for next 25 years?
It’s not like he has been perfect, his europen succes is lackluster when you think about how much resources(pre Glazer) and what a big club United is. He even admit it himself, not winning enough in Europe. I just hope retiers in a good will and leave with a positive trend. But im sure he can handle 1-2 more years and bring us titles, starting with Giggsy in midfield isnt helping thou
@Costas
Haha, while I do not like the media attention Mourinho gets, but we should judge things subjectively. The notion that Mourinho only buys success and cannot built teams is not really true in my eyes. His time at Inter proved that he doesn’t need big money buys to win the grand prize. Milito was an execellent buy and essentially won with the squad that Mancini failed horribly to succed with.
The comparison that Sir Alex is someone who built teams while Mourinho don’t, seems illogical to me as well, because Mourinho went to different teams and created championship winning teams showed exactly he is capable of recreating teams. The only difference is that he did it with different clubs while Sir Alex did it with just 1. Putting things into perspective, you can say Sir Alex has built 4-5 winning teams, Mourinho has, as of now, built 4 winning teams already
While I’m at it, has Pep proved that he can recreate teams? His transfer record is also not something he can be proud of. The only thing he got going for him is that he is more humble
“The first half against Southampton, the first half against Liverpool and the first half on Saturday, we have some work to do in that respect.
“It’s not planned but I think it will be the last. You have to be concerned losing goals the way we did against Tottenham. We were well off the pace of the game. I don’t think we won a tackle in the first half.
“Fortunately you saw Manchester United in the second half. It was probably our best performance of the season in the second half.” – Sir Alex Ferguson demands better starts from his players.
Ha, thought it was some strategy of sort to try and drag (bore) the opposition to our level to then increase the tempo in second half
Great call by the way, hopefully we can start showing that side of our game we demonstrated in the second half on saturday more consistently than not
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson denies he wants to sell Anderson and admits he’s found it tough to leave out Anderson so far this season.
“He’s a difficult one to leave out. There’s been nothing wrong with the form of Scholes and Carrick. It makes it difficult to involve others in the team, especially as our desire is always to play with two wide players. But Anderson’s pre-season form was terrific. He’s a top player,” said Ferguson.
Absolutely, the kid is more of what we have been crying out for in past 3 or so years its a pity he couldn’t manage to keep fit for more that a handful of games hopefully its going to be the opposite this time around and we get to see him fulfil his potential.
@Marq
What he and Sir Alex definitely have in common is their winning mentality. So in that sense, there’s no one better to succeed him. Like you said, he proved he wasn’t a one hit wonder by recreating his success with Porto elsewhere. And he’s still on track to become the first manager to win a European Cup with 3 different teams. Yes, he managed filthry rich sides like Chelsea and Real, but he also won the Ch.League with 2 sides that didn’t have particulary large budgets.
We could make arguements about what kind of football his sides play. Although when you look back, only one European side really pummeled Pep’s Barca in the Ch.League and that was his Inter. Likewise, when they needed to, Chelsea and Porto also played good football during his tenure. There’s also the criticism about how much he relies on youngsters, but in light of recent events, I am not sure Fergie trusts them any more than him.
As for Pep, he’s still a bit of an enigma at this point. Won as many Ch.Leagues as Mourinho, but no one knows for sure how good he would be at another club, much less another league. And I must say that it doesn’t compliment him that he cracked only 4 years into his managerial career.
@ Marq:
Sorry for the delayed response gents but it is not only Milito he bought in his short time at Inter, here are all others:
Brazilian winger Mancini for 13m
Muntari for 14m
Quaresma for 18.6m plus a youngster
Thiago Motta, do not remember the fee,
Sneijder! Do not remember the fee, plus
He swapped Eto’o for Ibrahimovic.
Hence Inter gone into oblivion after this spree I guess.
Jesus H Christ, still all the complaining.
Listen, Fergie had Cleverley and Anderson in the first 11 last season for the start of the year and they were good together. However, Tom got himself injured again after the Kevin Davies tackle and never fully recovered before the season was over. Unfortunately, Tom’s entire history with United is full of injury, he even had to stress that he didn’t want an “injury prone” title. He’s not exactly a kid either, he’s 23 or so, he’s only 3 years shy of Rooney’s age.
As for Anderson, as soon as Tom was out of the picture Anderson fell back to the mediocrity that has plagued his time with United. Welbeck is also finally feeling the pinch of Sir Alex now after a long spell of inconsistent performances for United.
That’s not to say that all of these players are shit, they most definitely aren’t shit, there is serious potential among them but there’s a reason why Fergie looks over them in some games. You lot also forget that he sees them in training every day, he’s well aware of their capabilities and their experience.
As for “relying on Rio, Giggs and Scholes”… Giggs has barely played (and only started against Spurs because we had nobody to play on the left wing since Nani had to take up Tony V’s position)… Scholes has turned games around for us already because he is STILL our best midfielder by a LONG ways, we don’t have anybody who can pass and boss a midfield like he can. As for Rio, he didn”t have the best showing on Saturday, but his start to the season hasn’t been at all bad, he was incredible at Anfield, for example, which is one of our worst grounds. You also completely seem to forget that we have two unavailable younger defenders in Smalling and Jones.. they aren’t being played because they are injured, they aren’t being looked over.
As for Buttner, another serious prospect but the only game he played for us in the league is against Wigan so far. I was amused when we played Newcastle in the league cup and this place was full of jubilation about how it was out best performance of the season, leaving out the fact that Newcastle also had an under-strength side out, and as soon as Pappiss Cisse came on, the defense couldn’t handle him, he scored 1 and almost scored a blinding overhead kick, which if he had would have brought us to Extra time, and they had finished the stronger side. I have no doubt there are people here who would play that exact same side against Newcastle this weekend in the Premier League, and then wonder why they got hammered. The League Cup is for the younger players and those returning from injury for a team like United and any self-respecting team that challenge for more prestigious trophies.
I’m not saying people here don’t have the “right” to criticize Fergie, of course you do, but I also have a right to call you on it if I think you are wrong, and I definitely have a right to call people out for scapegoating. Paul Scholes is the new target of criticism now, which is incredible considering we’d have lost to Anfield if he didn’t get us control of the midfield when he came on, and we would have lost or drawn at Southhamtion (a game in which even RvP, after a hattrick, said Scholes should have gotten MOTM and not him). The last few years of United there’s been nothing but scapegoating of single players, blaming them for all of our problems on the pitch.
Now we face Cluj and we already seem to have a problem with viruses and injuries, so it could end up being painful to watch for us. And if we do lose, I’m not looking forward to the same gang of users here who only comment when we lose and barely when we win.