Why Manchester United Sacked Mourinho

Manchester United have sacked Manager, Jose Mourinho after their worst start to a season in almost 30 years, the club announced on Tuesday December 18, 2018.
The 55-year-old Portuguese’s last match in charge was the 3-1 defeat by Premier League on Sunday December 16, 2018 which left them 19 points behind their opponents.
Mourinho’s sacking comes just two-and-a-half years into his tenure and three years and a day since Chelsea sacked him just months after he had guided them to the title.
Former player Michael Carrick, now a member of the coaching staff, is expected to take charge in an interim role, but United said a Caretaker Manager will be appointed until the end of the season.
The club’s worst start in the league since 1990 means even Mourinho’s ambition of reaching the top four and a Champions League qualification spot is in danger.
Despite United reaching the Champions League knockout stages – they face an intimidating last-16 tie with Paris Saint-Germain – a mix of the results, dressing-room discord and criticism of the board’s transfer policy proved potent factors in the decision to dismiss him.
A United source told AFP that Mourinho had been supported in his efforts to sign players and described reports of player power at the club as being key to the sacking and wide of the mark.
According to British media reports, United will have to pay £22.5 million ($28 million) – as the club is still in the Champions League – to sever the ties.
“Manchester United announces that Manager Jose Mourinho has left the club with immediate effect,” a club statement said.
“The club would like to thank Jose for his work during his time at Manchester United and to wish him success in the future.
“A new Caretaker Manager will be appointed until the end of the current season, while the club conducts a thorough recruitment process for a new, full-time manager.”
Carrick is favoured for the caretaker role having become part of the coaching staff this season.
Liverpool vs Man United: Reds ease past Mourinho’s men – ‘Deteriorating relationship’ – In the longer term former Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane has been linked to the club and Tottenham Hotspur Manager Mauricio Pochettino could also be a name in the frame.
Mourinho’s reign had started well enough with the League Cup and the Europa League trophies but neighbours Manchester City’s dominance over them in the league has hurt. The wound went even deeper for Mourinho as City are managed by Pep Guardiola, who got the better of him when he managed Barcelona and Mourinho was at Real Madrid.
However, despite his protestations to the contrary the United board gave Mourinho plenty of money to compete. Top-quality players such as Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku – who he persuaded to come to United and not Chelsea for £75 million in 2017 – and Paul Pogba for a then world record fee of £89 million in 2016 have floundered under his authoritarian stewardship.
Indeed it was his deteriorating relationship with World Cup-winning midfielder Pogba – one of many to feel the lash of his tongue in public – that symbolised the decline at the club under him. Mourinho questioned his attitude while the player hit back with open criticism of the tactics, culminating in him kicking his heels on the bench during the Liverpool debacle on Sunday.
In another development, AFP Sport picks out five quotes that chart the decline in relations between Mourinho, the club and the players:
July 24 Mourinho’s relationship with record signing Paul Pogba had already become fraught in the 2017/18 season – he dropped the Frenchman for the Champions League loss to Sevilla – but the path to the complete breakdown in relations took root in the wake of comments he made after the 25-year-old’s shining moment in scoring in the World Cup final win over Croatia. Pogba was said to be furious when he read the remarks.
“During a season, you can have a big match then a smaller match, then one even smaller, then you can lose your focus, you can lose your concentration, then comes a big match again. “In the World Cup, the direction of the emotion, of the responsibility, of the big decisions is always growing up. “So I think it was the perfect environment for him.”
July 29; Mourinho voices his concerns, following a 4-1 pre-season hammering by Liverpool, regarding the transfer policy of the club even though early in the close season he had been quick off the mark and secured Brazilian midfielder Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk and full-back Diogo Dalot from FC Porto.
“I gave a list to my club of five names a few months ago and I wait to see if it’s possible to have one of these players. If it’s possible, it’s possible. If it’s not, it’s not. If it’s possible, it’s good. If not then we keep fighting and working and believing in the players that we have.”
August 31; Just a few weeks into the season Mourinho felt obliged to remind the world of how great a manager he was in terms of his overall record and resorted to citing German philosopher Georg Hegel to support his argument. “Did you read any philosopher? You spent time reading Hegel.
Just as an example Hegel says: ‘The truth is in the whole,’ is always in the whole.” November 30 By this stage United were 14 points off neighbours Manchester City and seven adrift of the Champions League places, but Mourinho returned to his favoured defence strategy of how hard it is now to buy the top players even though over his tenure he spent around £360million.
“You have no chance in the market unless you go to crazy numbers. Instead you go to the second level players where you still have crazy numbers, and where people say, and I agree, that’s not what Manchester United is.”
December 4; Less than a week later Mourinho had revised his target for finishing in the top four at the end of the year with an eight point gap between them in seventh spot and fourth-placed Arsenal and his low ambitions not only upset United fans further but probably set alarm bells ringing in the boardroom and a further go at the players failed to spark them into positive action as evidenced by the dysfunctional display against Liverpool.
“The target changed but let’s try to close the distance as best as we can and be very close to these positions. We need some players to perform better than they are. We need to perform better as a team, but it would be far from a miracle.”