London : Jose Mourinho is on the verge of fulfilling his dream of managing Manchester United after Louis van Gaal’s troubled two-year reign at Old Trafford came to a bitter end.
Van Gaal said he was “very disappointed” to be sacked on Monday just 48 hours after leading United to victory in the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace.
Missing out on a lucrative Champions League place proved the final straw for the club’s United States-based owners, the Glazer family, and they didn’t let United’s first piece of silverware since the 2013 retirement of legendary boss Alex Ferguson stop them from wielding the axe.
With van Gaal having cleared out his desk at United’s Carrington training ground after talks over a settlement for the final year of his three-year contract, which had been worth a reported £6.4 million per year ($9.2 million, 8.2 million euros), the path is clear for former Chelsea manager Mourinho to be confirmed as the new United boss on Tuesday.
Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea in December after a miserable campaign marred by a series of rifts with the club’s star players that eventually became intolerable to owner Roman Abramovich as the team, champions just months earlier, languished near the relegation zone.
Now the 53-year-old will hope to restore his reputation by restoring the sparkle to United’s own tarnished image.
Former United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel believes Mourinho is the right man to get the club back on track. “On the top of Mourinho’s list was always Manchester United, now he has the opportunity,” Schmeichel told the BBC.
From the moment, Mourinho danced a jubilant jig down the Old Trafford touchline after a late goal from Costinha gave his Porto side the draw they needed to eliminate Alex Ferguson’s men from the 2004 Champions League, the colourful and controversial Portuguese has seemed destined to manage United.
He thought his time had come when Ferguson retired, but concerns over his volatile nature prompted United to turn to the more conservative David Moyes instead.
But with that move proving a disaster and van Gaal faring little better, United’s powerbrokers have decided to take a chance on Mourinho.
Having famously locked horns with the likes of Arsene Wenger and Rafael Benitez during his two spells with Chelsea, Mourinho will arrive at United just in time to resume hostilities with Pep Guardiola, who is about to leave Bayern Munich for his first taste of the Premier League as Manchester City boss.
