BBC: United hold talks with Mourinho

Would you be happy to see Jose Mourinho become next United manager?

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Okay....

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/mar/19/jose-mourinho-manchester-united-pre-contract

This is welcome news from my perspective based on the fact that we are going no where right now nor do I see Giggs as an alternative. It is also very understandable. Jose most likely had a clause saying no EPL jobs and this pre contract takes him off the table from other European clubs but also lets him get ready for the work ahead here.

Now am I thrilled with Jose... not in the least.

I am sure he will have a point to prove based on what happened at Chelsea and I am also sure he will not last long (he has never lasted more than 3 years anywhere). This means we will get a manager with some questionable behavior, but also a long clear history of trophies. Thus we are wise we appoint Jose and can really use his strengths to help us short term while we completely understand some of his not so strong suits. So get some good results for about 3 years and all the while we get ready to appoint our next manager that fits all of the criteria we would like- 1) Attacking football 2) Winning Silverware 3) Promoting youth and 4) Longevity.

So again based on where we are this sounds great news to me. Get him on board, get the ship righted and immediately start working on what we need after Jose.
 
sunama said:
I remember when Fergie announced his retirement and Jose's Madrid came to OT and beat us. After the match, Jose was very complimentary about MUFC and I honestly felt that we were the next club he would manager.
Then came the bombshell that Moyes was our new manager. I actually thought it was a joke...but it was for real.
I could not understand how or why this decision was made and I knew full well that he was out of his depth.
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That match was before SAF announced anything.

His reaction after the game and the Mourinho interview as you mentioned all made me think he was going to retire, but he didn't announce it until two months later.
 
People saying Fergie should have no input are wrong. He's on our board, deservedly so, and deserves his say.

It just shouldn't be the be all end all. I'm also sceptical about reports saying he doesn't like Mourinho. Never got that impression at all.

It's an inevitability that Mourinho will manage us. Even if we don't appoint him next, his spectre will loom large over whoever we do appoint. Best to just give him the job now because it's going to happen at some point. It may as well be now.
 
Kraftwerker said:
People saying Fergie should have no input are wrong. He's on our board, deservedly so, and deserves his say.

It just shouldn't be the be all end all. I'm also sceptical about reports saying he doesn't like Mourinho. Never got that impression at all.

It's an inevitability that Mourinho will manage us. Even if we don't appoint him next, his spectre will loom large over whoever we do appoint. Best to just give him the job now because it's going to happen at some point. It may as well be now.
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It's more than likely, however it depends on where we finish. Woody would loathe to sack LVG if he gets us a CL spot. Not as straightforward as we'd like to believe.
 
Spoony said:
It's more than likely, however it depends on where we finish. Woody would loathe to sack LVG if he gets us a CL spot. Not as straightforward as we'd like to believe.
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Nah I think that's Woodward's ideal situation actually.

Then he can look like Billy Big Balls again - look at me sacking a manager who's just got us top 4.

And obviously from a commercial point of view, it's a dream for him.

I don't think Woodward's appetite for keeping Van Gaal is nearly as strong as people believe. I just don't think the club see the benefit of mid-season sackings.
 
Kraftwerker said:
Nah I think that's Woodward's ideal situation actually.

Then he can look like Billy Big Balls again - look at me sacking a manager who's just got us top 4.

And obviously from a commercial point of view, it's a dream for him.

I don't think Woodward's appetite for keeping Van Gaal is nearly as strong as people believe. I just don't think the club see the benefit of mid-season sackings.
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I think it's a case of not wanting a revolving door policy. That said the rumours of a power struggle seem to be true.
 
I think the club is wary that if you make the wrong noises now, it only adds more pressure on the players because their own futures come under scrutiny. So let's just see what we do today. We need a real show of solidarity.
 
So the worst possible scenario has happened for us. Ex players and managers getting involved in every decision the club makes pushing their own agendas. Just like Beckenbauer at Bayern used to. A tragedy. A circus. Fergie's and Charlton's roles should be limited to fans that watch our matches tbh. It's bit good for the club and certainly not good for any manager that comes in.
If Fergie still has put his five cents in every decision he simply shouldn't have called it a day
 
POF said:
Absolutely. Mourinho is no guarantee of anything but he is clearly the best available manager now and the most obvious one who can bring a winning mentality back to a club who built it over 26 years and lost it in a few months under Moyes.

You are right about those European games. It is harder to do in Europe for a number of reasons, mainly becauss English teams are not as good as their European counterparts. United don't need to worry about Europe for now. The priority is to return to being a force in the Premier League. In his first 2 years back in England Mourinho had an amazing record against title rivals and his record was better the more important the game was.

I agree that United need a complete restructure of the footballing element of the club. They need young footballing blood that can produce long term stability and vision outside of the manager's position. But this is a club that took a year to appoint a current club employee as head of the academy. The restructure could/will take years.

Mourinho has never shown that he can build long term success at a club. He tried and failed in his latest spell at Chelsea but you can tell he really wants to have a long term spell now. Can he do it? Who knows. But first and foremost United needs someone to make them competitive now. He is the clear and obvious choice.
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I'm not sure if he wants a long term spell now, but if he wants it he will have to ease the levels of tension he sets in all his teams since the minute 0, to produce a competitive plus. And if he changes that his short term impact will be affected.

If we are going to sign him I'd prefer he keeps doing the same he always did. And maybe after a pair of years, from a better position in terms of results it will be easier to start building something, without the noise, the doubts and desperation there's now around. I'm not sold with him but I can see the logic of that move.
 
Kraftwerker said:
Dafuq.

So what's his position?

I could've sworn he's on the board.

Non-executive director or something?
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He is a non executive director, this basically means a glorified ambassador. His ties to the club like Charlton grant them certain privileges, now that doesn't in anyway grant them power but it does mean the Actual board of directors may seek their counsel on certain football related matters.
 
Why is there no talk of Laurent Blanc or Didier Dechamps? In the current market, they seem like obvious candidates to me.
 
So this pre-contract agreement report. If that's true then presumably the idea behind it is that we secure Mourinho in case LVG doesn't get top 4? All this does is make me feel bad about cheering us on in the derby :(

If we scrape top 4 then we effectively get punished for it...
 
theyneverlearn said:
£15million if we don't sign Mourinho is ridiculous. Add that to the money we'll have to pay off LvG, plus any compensation to the club we take a manager from and we'll be the best part of £25million out of pocket.
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I wouldn't necessarily take that £15m too literally, even if the article is right on the principle, the details might be rather different. The motives of the individuals leaking these stories will always be to show themselves/their clients in their best light - whether that's as tough negotiators or valuable commodities.

What if it's actually structured as a non-refundable deposit, so if we keep Mourinho on hold until the start of May it costs us £5m, an insurance policy in effect. Whereas if we want to keep him hanging around any longer (which would effectively cost him a clean start with a new job and might cost him a year's pay) we have to pay another £10m. There's no way we'll know what the actual contract looks like unless the clause gets activated and somebody puts it on footyleaks in a few years time.
 
If we sack lvg then we have to give him a year worth of contract. That's far less than 15m
 
I presume that the £15m pre contract is Mourinho isn't available to sign prior to May therefore everyone wants to show full commitment without officially signing him.

The optionality within the contract could possibly get around him signing contracts prior to the end of the season.
 
People writing off Jose because "he'll only be here three years" are laughable. Guess what? Our previous two managers lasted less than that and have brought zero success and taken the club backwards. I'll take three years of success over 2 years of regression.
 
SteveJ said:
Obviously, our lot are dragging it out in the hope of van Gaal achieving something positive by season's end; then they'd claim to have a reason to keep him on as manager. They're giving LVG every chance, whether he deserves it or not. Personally I've had enough of the self-interest of the bloody lot of them - LVG, Ed, the CO92, Mourinho and Mendes etc etc.
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Or because the powers that be havent been given the green light to appoint Mourinho due to a split within the board,so they have sealed the deal in Mourinho's services till the issues behind the scene have been resolved.
 
Kraftwerker said:
Dafuq.

So what's his position?

I could've sworn he's on the board.

Non-executive director or something?
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This is the board that gets referred to as the Football board. It's a 100% subsidiary of the Glazer run business.
https://companycheck.co.uk/company/...D-FOOTBALL-CLUB-LIMITED/directors-secretaries

It exists, but to think of it as more than advisory (or just plain PR) is to overdo its significance.

That said, if SAF and the other "football men" are indeed pushing a cheaper option, aka Ryan Giggs, then as a businessman or an owner you'd listen. Just as we're all hearing that ex-players and maybe even the ex-manager are saying the cheap option is the right one and debating why 90%+ of this forum disagree with those experts.

I think in the end Woodward will argue for the lowest risk option, albeit an expensive one.
 
I dont get this whole pre contract thing, is it a contract before the contract? Can we not give him a contract until we tell Van Gaal to feck off? If we scrape 4th are we going to be stuck with Van Gaal for another year?
 
Fergie had absolutely no problem making it clear when he didn't like other managers - Benitez, Wenger at times. I'm not sure why we should believe he acts as if he likes Mourinho but really doesn't want him anywhere near.
 
Amir said:
Fergie had absolutely no problem making it clear when he didn't like other managers - Benitez, Wenger at times. I'm not sure why we should believe he acts as if he likes Mourinho but really doesn't want him anywhere near.
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Doesn't fit the agenda that he's a puppet master controlling everything behind the scenes.
 
royboy16 said:
Or because the powers that be havent been given the green light to appoint Mourinho due to a split within the board,so they have sealed the deal in Mourinho's services till the issues behind the scene have been resolved.
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Or much more likely that as part of his settlement with Chelsea he can't take a job in England yet.
 
iSparky said:
I dont get this whole pre contract thing, is it a contract before the contract? Can we not give him a contract until we tell Van Gaal to feck off? If we scrape 4th are we going to be stuck with Van Gaal for another year?
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If the reports are true about this pre-contract, there's no way in hell Louis is staying, top 4 or not. It probably is a way to make sure we get him after his highly probable non-compete with Chelsea wears out.
 
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