Maybe it is Mourinho's fault, but I can't say I feel certain that it is. Look, we've been like this for eight or nine years. SAF's last few seasons were also quite rough to watch, remember? We only won that last league title because nobody else really challenged for it. There was widespread agreement that it was due time for him to retire because the football had been depressing for several years.
We've had the exact same complaints about Moyes, LvG and now Mourinho. Boring, negative football, uninspired, uncreative, players chronically underperforming, lack of meaningful strategic approach. Granted, Moyes had no business managing this club, but LvG and Mourinho were both proven top managers. While Mourinho has a reputation for dropping off in his third season, he also has a remarkably consistent record of making clubs soar with success until then. If managers repeatedly fail upon arriving at this club, is it really sensible to simply say that none of them were good enough?
Surely there has to be something wrong at the club that isn't just down to the manager himself. If we sack Mourinho, it must be because he's identified as the cause of all this; but then how likely is it that our last three managers have all caused precisely the same problem for the club? It just seems so improbable that an issue that has persisted over the course of nearly a decade has consistently been the fault of several different managers. It simply doesn't make sense.
And while our squad certainly has room for improvements, noone can possibly claim that the football displayed in the last five seasons matched the caliber of our players. This is a team that has been consistently underperforming for quite a few years. We have a very decent squad. It's not the best in the land, but these problems cannot be said to stem from a lack of quality players. They're largely good players who have been performing at 75% for years.
How many times have we signed a great player only to find that he completely fails to deliver at United? Or a youngster has a stellar debut season, then grinds to a halt. There's such a thing as football culture in a club, and it transcends any individual there, even the manager. A football club is a community, and it's very possible for something to be wrong with that community as a whole.
It reeks of toxic workplace environment. That's the very thing that comes to mind when I look at United. I don't see a series of managers who weren't up to the task (you know, Moyes aside). I don't see a squad that simply hasn't got the sheer quality to win. I see the signs of a toxic workplace environment, and that could stem from any number of things. The club is currently being criticized for failing to offer employees a living wage. That's exactly the kind of thing that could contribute to a negative club atmosphere.
I don't work for MUFC so I can't pretend to be certain what the reason might be, but unless we're to believe that several consecutive managers have all happened to instill in the club the exact same set of flaws, does it really make sense to continue sacking manager after manager in the hopes that this fixes it? Who will we get with better credentials than Mourinho? I don't love the man, but I can't see who else could possibly swoop in and fix all this.
