Manchester United vs Tottenham: How success at Spurs can rewrite Jose Mourinho’s Old Trafford legacy

The long process which led to Jose Mourinho’s dismissal is remembered as “a death by a thousand cuts” inside Old Trafford, but some were deeper than others.

There was July of last year, for example, after a pre-season friendly defeat to Liverpool in Michigan. Mourinho had spent much of Manchester United’s tour in a foul mood, claiming after a goalless draw with San Jose Earthquakes that with several players still on holiday after their exploits at the World Cup, those available to him were “not a team”.

The comments concerned United officials but his post-match remarks at the Big House were the most alarming of all. Alexis Sanchez had played up front as United’s only available attacking player and cut a frustrated figure during the game, unhappy with the quality of service he had received. Mourinho defended Sanchez’s stroppiness, asking: “Do you want him to be very happy with the players he has around him?”

Another watershed moment was the 3-1 defeat at West Ham the following September, perhaps the single most dysfunctional performance of Mourinho’s time in charge, after which he effectively accused his players of downing tools. “I can have complaints with quality and mental approach,” he said. “You have to try always and that is my nature as a football professional.”

The belligerence of Mourinho’s approach had suddenly become too much to bear, the environment around the club was too toxic, the clean-up process needed every time he went on the attack too time-consuming. Michigan and the London Stadium set the wheels of his departure in motion, but perhaps the most significant moment of all was the close of the transfer window and United’s failure to sign the centre-half that their manager desired.

More than any defeat or post-match dressing down, that saga demonstrated the disconnect between the club and its manager. United were relatively happy with Mourinho’s performance in charge until the end of the 2017-18 season, even if a second-place Premier League finish had much to do with David de Gea’s excellent performances behind an otherwise questionable defence. Mourinho recognised this and wanted change.

He may have recognised it too late, though. United attempt to line up a shortlist of summer targets by February, but Mourinho is said to have only communicated his desire for a new defender late on in the campaign. With five first-team centre-halves already on the books, the request came as a surprise, but Mourinho did not consider any one of them to be a certain starter. In hindsight, it is hard to disagree.

Victor Lindelof was yet to establish himself and, despite now being a regular, he has plenty of room for improvement. Eric Bailly was perhaps the most naturally-gifted of the five but has barely featured over the last 18 months due to injury. Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo’s limitations are well-established. And if at least two of that 2017-18 crop were good enough, why make Harry Maguire the world’s most expensive defender only a year later?

But others at the club did not see it Mourinho’s way. United’s recruitment policy grants a veto to both the manager and the scouting department. And as Mourinho said regarding signings during that ill-fated 2018 pre-season tour: “One thing is what I would like. Another thing is what is going to happen.” His targets were red-flagged. Some inside Old Trafford even thought that one of his preferred centre-halves would be the worst to play for United in the club’s history.

Ed Woodward, as he recently admitted to United We Stand, was forced to say no to his manager. This refusal led to resentment, the resentment led to insecurity, the insecurity led to Mourinho’s abrasiveness during pre-season, pre-season led to United’s worst start to a top-flight campaign in 27 years. Still, Mourinho’s dismissal a week before Christmas, after a 3-1 defeat at Anfield in December, is said to have taken him by surprise.

The decision to extend his contract until 2020 with the option of a further year certainly suggested there was faith in his methods. United hired him for short-term gain rather than to build a Ferguson-esque dynasty. But had he served the full potential length, he would have been at the club for five seasons, no insignificant amount of time. The decision to renew was a questionable one by the club at best, increasing his eventual severance package to £19.6m, and not the only dubious one made by United’s hierarchy in recent years.

Mourinho returns to Old Trafford on Wednesday night, a few weeks short of the anniversary of his sacking, and will find his former club in a near-identical position. When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer turned United’s form on its head, picking up 32 points from a possible 39 as caretaker, the same players that had disappointed for the best part of 12 months were winning with style and flair again. Solskjaer’s success appeared to confirm Mourinho as yesterday’s man.

That is no longer the case. And if Mourinho can salvage Tottenham Hotspur’s season by securing an improbable top-four finish while United continue to languish further down the table, it will instead throw the other side of the argument into sharp relief. Responsibility for his failings at Old Trafford will be placed at the club’s door rather than his own. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. But do not be surprised if Wednesday night sees reinvigorated Mourinho tell his side of the story.