Weeshie's Week

The Special One is not my cup of tea

May 31st, 2016
by Weeshie Fogarty

 The big news all last week was the saga of the Jose Mourinho appointment as Manchester United manager as he eventually replaces Luis Van Gaal, who was sacked on last Monday week despite winning the FA Cup - United's first piece of silverware post-Sir Alex Ferguson ere. The Dutchman's failure to secure a top four finish ultimately cost him his job. However I wonder who was after whom? Were United after Mourinho or was Mourinho after United? He had always dropped the hints here and there that he would one day like to manage the Manchester giants. It would have been very interesting to see what would have happened if Van Gall had steered United to a 4th place in the Premiership and secured a place in Europe. However I don't believe that this would even have secured his job.

With Pep Guardiola taking over at Manchester City this summer, United were forced to react - identifying Mourinho as the ideal man to lead them to success, despite the fact that he was sacked from Chelsea and also failed at Real Madrid in 2013. So I believe behind the scenes negations between manager and club were going on long before the Cup Final. Mourinho is believed to have a deal worth £10m-a-year, with success-related bonuses and he is the third managerial appointment made by United since Ferguson's retirement. David Moyes lasted just nine months after failing to qualify for Europe.

While Van Gaal will receive a very generous going away hand shake, from a human perspective the whole affair in my opinion was handled very tardily and underhand and smacking of complete disregard for the feeling of the Dutchman and his family. For those of us following United all our lives the manner in which the sacking was handled leaves a sour taste in the mouth. I met up with one of Kerry's greatest United fans in Killarney last Friday, he travels on a regular basis to their games, and he told me he was so disgusted with the saga that he had written a two page letter to Alex Ferguson expressing his disappointment in the whole sorry story.

The Dutchman was treated with the utmost disrespect by the fans and the club and while he certainly was on a loser from the word go it was very evident listening to his interviews during the last couple of months how his personality, confidence and  self-assurance had completely crumbled. It did not make pleasant viewing and a club of United's world stature and great traditions showed complete and utter disrespect and indeed contempt to the man they appointed to represent them on the world stage.  

 For Mourinho, it is the end of a long audition and he hinted during the week that this was the job he always craved for as he reportedly said without even one mention of his predecessor.  "I have always felt an affinity with Old Trafford; it has hosted some important memories for me in my career and I have always enjoyed a rapport with the United fans. I'm looking forward to being their manager and enjoying their magnificent support in the coming years." The bottom line here is that it is his job to make United fans all over the world including here in Kerry feel as good about their team and its place in the world game as Ferguson did. The late Paidi o Se once famously remarked that Kerry were the Manchester United of Gaelic football.

I have been a Man United fan since 1957, not let me add straight away one of those poor souls who go into bouts of deep depression when they lose or those late comers who celebrate for a week when they win championships and cup finals. I just grew up with the club hand in hand with Kerry football. Manchester was a grim grey smoky, smoggy city when I visited in February 1957.My late brother Jimmy was working there at the time as were my two sisters Sheila and Kathleen Ann who also had taken the emigrant ship to follow a nursing career at Manchester Royal Infirmary.  An aunt from my father's side was nursing there and she as they say, "fixed them up".

Matt Busby and his magnificent young side fondly nicknamed, The Busby Babes were the talk of the football world having won the English league in 1955-56 and they would repeat the feat the following season. So for me a visit to Old Trafford was a must. By pure chance Real Madrid were in town to play United in a European Cup match, Jimmy had secured the tickets, we stood at the famed Stretford End squeezed as tight as sardines among the heaving mass of 65,000 fanatical fans. I was hooked from that very moment, it was an amazing experience not unlike an All-Ireland final day but completely different in so many ways.

Madrid were in their pomp, they went on to win five-in-a-row European Cups, (they are still winning them), and for this game they were leading 3-0 from the first leg. They added two more in the first half to assure qualification to the semi-final. Brilliant players, names that remained forever etched in the memory. Alfredo Di Stefano, Francisco Gento, Raymond Copa and others. But I was mesmerised by the Babes of United, so young so brilliant so charismatic with a magnificent future ahead of them.

 It would be the last time I ever saw them play together; The Munich air disaster came one year later. Of the 11 players who I saw lining up against Real that evening in Old Trafford, six perished in the accident on February 6 when the plane carrying players, staff, journalists and supporters crashed in a blizzard while trying to take off at the third attempt from Munich airport. Eddie Byrne, Eddie Colman, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor and Liam Whelan all lost their lives alongside fellow teammates Mark Jones and Geoff Bent as did probably the greatest of all Duncan Edwards.  For those of us who lived through this era Man United like Kerry becomes part of your life, it's in you DNA, their results are the first you look for, and with Matt Busby and Alex Ferguson we have seen some memorable victories. 

It's going to be fascinating to see how Mourinho does, yes he has proved his worth all over Europe however he is not my cup of tea. He comes across as conceited, arrogant, displays complete distain for others and knows how to make enemies better than friends. He will not change for United, but the traditions, supporters and history of this unique club will test him to the very limits. The press will love him but failure here will eliminate forever his own definition of himself as "The Special One". He will be remembered as having failed at Manchester United. The stakes could not be higher for this complex manager from Portugal.


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