This is so true. When we beat Barca before winning the Champions League in 08, that 2 legged semi was the most Mourinho tactics i've ever witnessed. But guess what? We ended up winning the Champions League. If we want to be successful, we have to have a manager who is tactically astute, and that will include being a bit reserved against the better teams. Its obvious. Mourinho isn't Tony Pulis. His teams often score a lot of goals and play some very good football. but occasionally, needs must, just like when Fergie was here.
And when we played two finals against them we looked like cavemen with stones against a modern army. A team needs to be realistic and know the limits before a match, but at the same time needs to evolve and add resources to his game permanently. And Mourinho doesn't offer too much in that sense, he's mainly a pure competitor. If he finally comes he will get results for some time, if there's no guarantee there's a high probability at least. But after that we'll have to build from a basic point again while the bigger clubs keep evolving every year around the same football concepts, reinforcing their systems even with different managers.
It was a similar situation when SAF retired, we won the league but the structures couldn't be more primitive. But it doesn't legitimate others to do the same, nor means we should accept it as the best possible thing just because Ferguson did it in that way. Because it's very common here, when someone says something negative about Mourinho somebody jumps the next second "B...but but Fergie did it too!". Fantastic then, now l will accept it while I applaud with my balls.
We're paying for the lack of development in the last years and we should learn from that, not do the same mistakes. This 'win at all costs' mentality without deep and permanent evolution is pure garbage, bread for today and hunger for tomorrow. If we develop properly as a team, that cost will be very low. In our current situation we need a very aggressive management to be contenders, and this will have consequences the next years, it won't be for free. The only reason I find to accept Mourinho is the desperation and feeling of chaos I feel around the club, but mainly inside. They don't have a clue of what to do, after three seasons of failure the money from sponsors is in danger, the club loses his value, his credibility and every time is more difficult to attract good players.
A pair of seasons with a good competitor like Jose will add some calm and normality, and from that point it will be easier to build something if the club uses that time to build better structures inside. But I'm sure that if we sign Mourinho he will hide our miseries behind his figure while he's here, and after that all the problems will appear on the surface again, and I won't blame Jose if it happens. I hope I'm wrong but unless the club is sold to a more professional group of people, reaching any kind of excellence is just an uthopy.
