Six Years Of Ed - Part 5

Whilst the squad was still in disarray, and a sixth-place finish in the Premier League could hardly be looked upon as a huge improvement, Mourinho’s United took their biggest single haul of trophies in the EFL trophy, the Europa League and the Community Shield. Led by the talismanic Ibrahimovic – Jose’s “inside man” in the dressing room - United started to demonstrate a swagger that hadn’t been seen in years as his determination and winning nature rubbed off on some of the impressionable young stars. For the first time since 2013 United felt like United again, and the ship was once again starting to point in the right direction.

However like Van Gaal, Mourinho suffered from “second season” syndrome. Mourinho demanded to be backed financially in the summer transfer window, wanting to completely rebuild a flagging and mistake-prone back four. Ivan Perisic and Toby Alderweireld were identified as influential senior players with a level of maturity capable of tempering the buffoonery of Pogba and co.

Ed refused, instead green-lighting the acquisition of highly-marketable Alexis Sanchez the following January, and giving him the biggest contract in the Premier League. Like Van Gaal, the papers were once again awash with stories of a lost dressing room, with Paul Pogba seemingly the main instigator behind the unrest, following Ibrahimovic’s untimely exit with a bad knee injury sustained during the Europa campaign.

This led to a public pantomime act between Mourinho and Pogba, with the former being covertly papped scowling at his wayward midfielder, and the latter gate-crashing interviews in some sort of cringeworthy, forced display of camaraderie.

Ultimately, things drew to a head with reports of Mourinho and Pogba’s bust up having completely soured the relationship between squad and manager, and our form nosedived among accusations from fans of players downing tools, and Mourinho being a negative influence on the club. Mourinho seemed to turn on everyone involved in the club, blaming Woodward for not backing him, both financially and as manager, later cryptically saying:

"The problems are there, you can imagine that it is the players, the organisation, the ambition,” he said. “I only say that I cannot say when you ask if Paul was the only one responsible."

Mourinho was sacked in December, partway into his third season. Once again, United faced the increasingly daunting task of finding a new manager, and once again a bloated squad - made up of purchases made by four different managers, bought with the intention of playing four different styles of football - was going to need to be rebuilt. Not only that, but our wage budget had grown exponentially in the space of just a few years.