Interesting quotes from Robben about Mourinho today. I know he might have a chip on his shoulder about his time at Chelsea and the CL Final is coming up, but the quotes seem fair without being bitter.
A question for Elvis and other Mourinho fans: as it now seems fairly likely that Mourinho will move to Madrid this summer, does that change your view of him coming to United?
It seems clear to me that his preferred career path would be to move on now to Madrid having won the CL and Serie A with Inter. He'd like to win the CL again with Madrid as well as La Liga and have done that in time to succeed SAF at United.
That will mean that he's going through clubs at a rate of one every two years - are you really happy to just let United be a small factor on his CV before he inevitably leaves after 2 years to take on the Portugal job?
He wouldn't stay here two years though, I really do think it would be longer than that because a) He has continually stated his love of the English game and his desire to come back, b) He said he will stay in management until he is 70, c) He wants Portugal to be his last job.
But let's just say he did come here, stayed 2 years, then fecked off. So? If he did only stay 2 years he would have been very successful, because otherwise he wouldn't leave, so is there anything wrong with coming in, steadying the ship, continuing our success then handing down the reigns to somebody else? If that did turn out to be the case, then I really don't see the problem.
But as I've said before, I think his next job in England will be a long-term one. He's 47 now, let's say he stays at Madrid for 2 years, he'll then be 49, then he comes to United - do you really think he's going to stay until he's 51 then manage Portugal for 19 years? I really can't see that happening, I think he'd like a couple of shots at the World Cup and Euro's, so he may manage the national team for 6 - 8 years, depending on his success.
But if Madrid is his next job, where is there for him to go after that, other than a team in England? He'll have done it in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and England (Though we know he wants to come back). He's said he'll never manage Barcelona, he's said he doesn't like Italy, and I can't see him going back to Portugal either, so without doubt his next job in England is going to be a long-term one. Hopefully it's with United as I'd have no doubts about our success continuing, and I think people's concerns about the youth side of our club and the way in which we would play our football would soon be quashed, as we have a fantastic youth set up which Mourinho would no doubt take advantage of, and, well, the football argument has been done to death so we won't go there.
It's all about timing though, if Mourinho doesn't win La Liga or the CL next year with Madrid (assuming he goes there), and Sir Alex retires in the summer, then what does he do? Does he leave his project at Madrid and come back at a later date, or does he miss out on the United job this time round, stay at Madrid and wait until the next manager vacates the position?
Who knows, hopefully Sir Alex will just stay until he's 90.
