It’s really simple for me. I’m still with him, but win the league next season or sack him.
I’m tired of excuses. Get the job done. You have the money, and more experience in this league than the guy who got 100 points. I don’t see any reason why after 3 years and 6 transfer windows, he can’t win the league other than him actually regressing ability-wise as a manager.
Money will be there. Players are there. If the players aren’t good enough, change them. Buy and sell to your liking. It’s all on him. If they’re not “his players” after 3 years, that’s his problem. If they’re “his players” and they still don’t win the league, that’s his problem.
There’s literally not one thing that he can argue that Conte and Pep had/has that he doesn’t. It’s just so hard to get around the cold hard truth that Pep and Conte didn’t need much time to win the league, so why does Mourinho, the guy who knows this league better than them all?
If he doesn’t win the league next season then it’s totally on him and he can go. Challenging is not enough.
Because he isn't as good as Guardiola is, pretty much. I really don't like Mourinho as United's manager (but oddly still kind of like the guy, as I used to like him at Chelsea and all that... just not at United), but he is still a top manager. Not the very best, but that's not the problem. The problem is he isn't suited to this club. My issue with the line of thinking of "win the league or bust" is that it's a very harsh mentality. IMO, as long as there are plenty of encouraging signs, then the manager should stay. General points like these:
- A progression in quality of performances (whether that's defensive play or offensive, it gives you hope that he's doing the right thing).
- Improvement in players already at the club (no brainer, but also gives you hope that with even better players they can make a further step up as a club.
- Consistency in style of play (a manager changing his tactics for every single game makes me think he doesn't know what he's doing and he's just trying anything. Not changing formation or making the odd exception, but general play style and tactics).
- Good results (because it's nice to have everything else, but at the end of the day, you do need at least your base objectives like get top 4)
Then for certain clubs, there are other points that really need to be fulfilled (and I thought United was one of these clubs):
- Entertaining football
- Giving youth a chance
- Never giving up/being defeatist in your comments as the manager, no matter what you actually believe
- Building a side with the aim to be the best (any side with the financial strength of United, City, PSG, Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich really should be striving for this, always building a side to try and outplay any other side. Teams like Atletico are more those who can't compete financially so build a side to nullify and compete like that. That's a big problem with Mourinho. Even at one of the 5 wealthiest clubs, he's dream is to build a side to nullify and not dominate)
Things like this is more United specific. I would never say trophies are a necessity in one specific season, as luck can just really not go your way and you end up runners up in everything. Would be dumb to sack somebody if they finished runners up in the league but had huge progression in overall play style, improved everyone at the club, and so on.
The problem with Mourinho is that for me, he doesn't tick most of these points. Our quality of performance if anything deteriorates as the season goes on. The players at the club already have if anything, gone backwards for the most part. There is no consistency in style of play (or there is, if you consider how Mourinho goes to defend/kill the momentum of a game the second we play a decent side). He doesn't play entertaining football. He's always been one who alienates the promising young attacking players, and it's the case again (there's a difference with giving them appearances, and really nurturing them). Then obviously the last point, as Mourinho with all the money and players in the world, would still just build a side who could just nullify a dream Pep side, rather then dominate anyone.
The only thing he usually has going for him is results and getting trophies. He achieved the bare minimum with his results, because we failed in every cup competition, and if anything way over-achieved in our league position relative to the on field performances. So I'd be worried if I were him, because he needs to drastically change if he wants to keep his job past next season IMO.