Part-1 (The past)

When Louis van Gaal was sacked as the Manchester United manager before the 2016–17 season, Jose Mourinho was touted to be the favorite to hold the coveted job. Jose was someone who “specialized” in winning Premier League trophies. He had completely transformed his Chelsea side to perennial title favourites. After Sir Alex’s retirement in 2013, Jose was hoping to land the United job as he had maintained a good relationship with Sir Alex and was fascinated by the club’s heritage. However, the then Everton manager, David Moyes, was picked by Sir Alex as his successor. The main reason for this might have been because Jose’s philosophy did not match Manchester United’s of promoting youngsters from the academy.

Moyes failed miserably and was sacked before he could complete a single season in charge. United finished a miserable seventh and appointed Louis Van Gaal, fresh from leading The Netherlands to a third place finish in the recently concluded FIFA World Cup, as the next man at the helm. Van Gaal had two poor seasons and failed to make a telling impact. His contract was terminated at the end of the 2015–16 season and the club were in desperate need of a proven manager.

The club’s board was desperate, hungry and eager to get things back to normal, and restore the winning ways at the club. The fans called for this change, calling Louis Van Gaal’s football as ‘boring’ and ‘unappealing’. LVG’s philosophy was based on a solid defensive foundation and greater defensive possession during build-up play. Van Gaal did not get all the players he wanted, rather stuck to the club’s trusted academy products and played them consistently. In his second season in charge, he gave debuts to 15 academy graduates, most notably Marcus Rashford and heavily trusted new signing Anthony Martial. Manchester United had the joint-best defense, conceding only 35 goals throughout the season, thanks to David De Gea’s heroics. Martial’s 11 league goals fired United to a fifth-place finish and although the fans embraced LVG sticking to the club’s academy, they wanted trophies. LVG was sacked just a few days after Manchester United lifted the FA Cup. Jose Mourinho, licking his wounds after being sacked by Chelsea, looked like the exact man for the job.

Jose Mourinho was appointed the manager of Manchester United for the 2016–17 season. Another wave of euphoria struck the fans as Manchester United announced the signing of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the Armenian who had a superb season with Borussia Dortmund. Then came the bigger news, the return of the youth academy prodigy whose attitude was despised by Sir Alex, but had gone on to have a couple of great seasons in Serie A with Juventus. Paul Labile Pogba had returned to the Theatre of Dreams once again. The transfer announcement video of Paul Pogba where he says “I’m back home!” showed the fans that he is here to win. Things got even better as Manchester United signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic on a free transfer from Paris Saint Germain. The tsunami of hope had struck them. They finally thought things were getting back to normal.

Fast forward to the end of the season, it was a disappointing Premier League campaign as United finished 6th, despite having a top squad and a proven manager. There were widespread excuses from fans that Jose needed a season to understand things.

I strongly feel that with a club like Manchester United where stakes are extremely high, you need to push your players and do the needful instead of waiting, as every season has to be an improvement rather than a step back. United had lifted the Community Shield, Europa League and The League Cup, ensuring that it wasn’t a trophy-barren season and a ticket to the Champions League but what mattered most still eluded them.

Next season, Manchester United snapped up Romelu Lukaku, who had a fantastic season with Everton, Swedish defender Victor Lindelof and Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic.

Wayne Rooney left the club, Michael Carrick’s heart related issues meant that he had to retire. Zlatan Ibrahimovic suffered a horror injury and was on crutches. Manchester United seriously lacked a leader on the pitch.

Although they had a fantastic start, Manchester United did what they never did. Lose to a bottom placed team by starting the game overconfident and by playing bad football. This would become a recurring trend in the future. United were side by side with City in the title race but losses to Chelsea and eventually Manchester City derailed their title challenge.

The January tansfer window saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alexis Sanchez swap clubs. Fans expected Sanchez to lift the club to City’s level but he never hit the ground running.

Manchester United finished the season an impressive second. They had a disastrous Champions League season and lost the FA cup final to Chelsea. It was a Premier League season to remember and the board was confident that they will go one better next season.

The 2018/19 season began with rampant media reports flowing out about Jose Mourinho being promised a war chest of 300 Million Euros to challenge the title once again and fill up the weak links. But Jose never got the players he wanted. He desperately wanted Ivan Perisic, Toby Alderweireled, Diego Godin, and Willian but was unable to sign anyone. After a deadline day search for a defender came up endless, Mourinho had warned the fans about a horror season, but what followed was worse.

A streak of horrible losses and a fallout with Paul Pogba meant that Jose Mourinho was sacked by Christmas.

This is where the club did a massive mistake. Jose Mourinho has seen more of the football world than a 24 year old Paul Pogba. He is a proven winner. Yet, when it came to enforcing discipline, the players failed massively and the manager had to bear the brunt. The team under Sir Alex thrived well because there was this sense of respect, moral values and discipline inside the club. Paul Pogba was not a fan of Jose’s moral policing. There was a sense of hypocrisy in and around the club. When it came to enforcing discipline around Manchester United with Sir Alex, everyone loved it. And mind you, Sir Alex was a different human. He was someone who got very angry at David Beckham who refused to remove his beanie while having dinner indoors.

Nobody realized that Manchester United had won three trophies in a season for the first time since Sir Alex retired and a second place finish with a team filled with aging, slow and stagnated players. All everybody seemed to notice was Jose’s angry confrontations with Paul Pogba. That, along with a bad run of games was what handed Jose the sack.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was back at Manchester United as the interim manager. Mick Phelan, Sir Alex’s trusted assistant was back as well. Michael Carrick was roped in as a coach and United fans looked ahead with curiosity and hope.

The current state of Manchester United will be covered in part-2.

By:- Supreeth R Koundinya, Sathvik K Bharadwaj