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Let's have a go at demolishing some of the myths surrounding Jose Mourinho’s long drawn-out Manchester United coronation.

Myth One:Sacking Louis van Gaal after winning the FA Cup is a degrading move for a club of such stature.

Well, the modest Dutchman may have hailed it a “title” won by his genius, but more objective minds will reckon winning a cup that gets you into the European runners'-up party is scant consolation for missing out on the Champions League by playing some of the worst football seen at Old Trafford since before it was hit in the 1941 Blitz.

Myth Two:Dismissing Van Gaal with a year left on his contract is a disgrace to United’s legacy because they have never been a sacking club.

Well, they’ve been blessed with two of the game’s greatest coaches, Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson, who they never needed to sack. But during the 20 post-war years in which neither of those men were in charge, they hired and fired SEVEN different managers. Which is more or less par for the course.

(Image: Man Utd/Getty) (Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)

Myth Three:They’re making a huge mistake in not giving Van Gaal’s job to Ryan Giggs because, with his inside knowledge, he could build a new United dynasty.

Where’s the evidence? Devoting your life to one club and learning the ropes at every level doesn’t guarantee you’ll succeed at the top job. Ask Roy Evans. Also, if the likes of Steve Bruce, Roy Keane, Mark Hughes, Paul Ince and Gary Neville had to find out the hard way whether Fergie’s gold-dust had rubbed off on them, why not Giggs?

Myth Four:Jose Mourinho doesn’t play the United Way.

Historically true. But to say Ferguson never set up defensively in the hope of grinding out a result is to ignore some of his later games against top European, especially Spanish, sides. Fergie could park the bus when he wanted.

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Myth Five:Mourinho is a nasty, classless character who will bring shame on United’s great reputation .

Sure. And Fergie was none of the above, M’lud. He never once bullied weaker men, encouraged his players to do the same with referees, thrived on a siege mentality or tried to manipulate the media. That seven-year refusal to talk to the BBC unless it suited his commercial needs, those journalists he chose to “get” for asking awkward questions, the public humiliation of officials who wouldn’t dance to his tune, the savage score-settling in his many books. He was class personified.

There’s another myth that says Mourinho is simply a short-term fix, when what United need is a visionary to lay the foundations for a long-term era of dominance.

But that doesn’t happen any more.

(Image: Getty)

Football, especially at the highest level, is a brutal, profit-driven business.

Managers are effectively CEOs of global brands, rewarded fantastically for short-term success and discarded callously for perceived failure.

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Mourinho was the only choice for a Wall Street-registered company that was slipping into the shadows and needed catapulting back into the limelight.

But what’s been lost in his lengthy courtship of United is what preceded it — Mourinho’s second sacking by Roman Abramovich, who was desperate to see him turn Chelsea into serial Champions League winners.

The unprecedented collapse of his Premier League champions has still to work its way through Chelsea’s system, leaving them off the pace of their rivals. But it has also left Mourinho, possibly for the first time in his career, with much to prove.

Jose Mourinho's career in pictures:

Does he belong to the current generation of elite coaches we will see in the Premier League next season, or the last one?

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Does he have the guile and hunger to make United a European force again, or will he spit his dummy out if his transfer targets go to rival clubs who are offering them Champions League football and he can’t build a team that delivers the instant glory his ego demands?

The only thing that should bother United fans right now is whether Mourinho is still guaranteed to win titles wherever he goes or if that is another myth waiting to be demolished.