You have to hand it to Manchester United: it’s a better class of crisis.
While Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea wallow in the Premier League mire and supposed deadlines for improvement go unchallenged, Louis van Gaal’s United calmly ignore the booing and wait for Leicester to vacate the leadership.
Even a Champions League exit in Wolfsburg tonight, we gather, will not disturb the manager’s security. David Moyes’s dismissal after less than a year is almost forgotten as the director responsible for his appointment, Sir Alex Ferguson, blithely chides Roman Abramovich for his history of trigger-happiness and warns the Chelsea owner that to sack Mourinho would be “foolish… bad management… poor leadership”.
To be fair, there was not much else Ferguson could do but support his Portuguese friend; anything else would have been seen as back-stabbing. But he was also right to point out that “one of the best coaches of all time” deserves to be respected as such. It’s a privilege that Mourinho — unlike poor Garry Monk, sadly fallen from future-England-manager status at Swansea — has earned.
Will Mourinho still survive if Chelsea lose to Porto tomorrow night? I only know he should.
One ploy Abramovich has yet to use is that of letting a storm blow itself out, putting the onus on the players, as well as the manager, to stabilise the ship.
United seem to have learned the value of this from their experience with Moyes. Then, players were allowed to brief against the manager, scorning his methods, undermining his authority. A couple have tried it on with Van Gaal — one said he could be twice the performer under someone else — and the ship has sailed serenely on.
Van Gaal gives the impression of being under no pressure at all. Naming Ryan Giggs as his successor was such a crafty trick that Mourinho might have considered doing likewise with John Terry and so, while the weather in Germany could be the stormiest yet, United are prepared.
