In the Transfer Tavern, the Man United fans are loving life again after Fergie, for the first time since the famous old Scot’s departure way back in 2013. As you can imagine, our resident Red Devils are amongst the loudest punters propping up our bar once again.
Indeed, Jose Mourinho is into his second year as United boss and things look like they’re finally ticking for the Old Trafford man with United fans having had to endure a bad few of years since Sir Alex’s retirement. Believe it or not, but the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ is bringing the excitement back to the Theatre of Dreams.
In his first season, the Portuguese did what no other United boss has done before him and won a trophy. In fact, not just the one, either. Bringing the EFL Cup as well as the Europa League to Manchester, the former Chelsea boss made up for a rather disappointing time of things in the Premier League.
They didn’t fare too well domestically and that was a huge disappointment for the Old Trafford faithful and our landlord believes this season will be a better showing, especially with the calibre of signings they brought in over the course of the summer. Things are looking pretty good right now and you can always expect a Mourinho team to improve over the course of the campaign.
With talks of a contract extension going around the Tavern, many of our regulars think that the Portuguese manager needs to deliver these three things before any pen goes to paper…
The Premier League
United have not won the Premier League trophy or come close to winning it since 2013. If you look back at the two decades of Red Devil dominance, this is unheard of. The biggest powerhouse in English footballing history, United fans just aren’t used to this level of mediocrity.
The number one target has got to be claiming back the trophy, to truly cement himself as a United manager for years to come, he owes it to the fans and more importantly the board for the financial backing they’ve shown in recent years.
A Champions League run
The fans don’t expect Mourinho to be winning the Champions League, yet. At the moment, they’ll be happy for a title-winning campaign but to show that this team has got what it takes to go on a decent run to the latter stages of the competition.
For a club of United’s stature, this should be a major target for Mourinho, who needs to prove that the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona aren’t a world away from his expensively assembled United side, though the Super Cup game at the start of the season certainly made it look that way.
The future stars
Mourinho came to United with the tag that he buys success and dismisses the youth development, though this has largely been squashed in of late, with the faith shown in Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard. Still, the board will be looking at setting foundations for the post-Mourinho years and he himself should be doing that, creating a great side to impress after his departure.
