Strange but true: a serial winner of a football manager is appointed at a club where, two progressive years in, an absentee owner who resides in the United States and a rugby enthusiast investment banker decide they know better than him.
It should concern those in situ at Manchester United that Jose Mourinho's comments last week are identical to what he said four-and-a-half years ago. "There are still people at that club and when I say people, I say some players, but also some other people who aren't players, they're still there and after two months with these people, you are never going to do it," Mourinho said on the Obi One podcast.
In May 2019, Mourinho told L'Equipe: "The problems are there, you can say that these are the players, the organisation, the ambition." READ MORE: Varane wants United contract extended after communications error READ MORE: Ineos target Ashworth and open to keeping Murtough Of the current United squad, Victor Lindelof, Diogo Dalot, Luke Shaw, Scott McTominay, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial played under Mourinho.
During his conversation with his old Chelsea enforcer John Obi Mikel, Mourinho scoffed at the memory that an agent of a United player accused him of bullying his client by substituting him at half-time.