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José Mourinho sacked: Manchester United to appoint caretaker – as it happened
This article is more than 5 years old
Updated
Tue 18 Dec 2018 13.43 EST
First published on Tue 18 Dec 2018 05.15 ESTLive feed
Key events
That’s all folks
Here are some of the pieces we have published on José today:
José’s gone: the news story
David Squires’s cartoon
Mauricio Pochettino reacts
What it means for the Lowry Hotel
Fans in Manchester give their take on Mourinho’s departure
Mourinho v the media
The Mourinho years in pictures
Who should take over?
How it all went wrong in Mourinho’s third season
Why Romelu Lukaku needs to step up
Thanks for reading.
Three stories you might have missed today amid all the Mourinho chat:
Adam Hurrey here with some old gold.
Surely the day's Big Question: just who pronounced Solskjaer's surname the best?pic.twitter.com/TWQA9RXJwU
— Adam Hurrey (@FootballCliches) December 18, 2018
All this talk of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer returning to Manchester has reminded me about the time he came off the bench and scored four goals in 11 minutes against Nottingham Forest in 1999. United won that game 8-1, having been just 2-1 up at half time.
The match has its very own Wikipedia page, which mentions the brilliant fact that there were only 10 shots on target and nine of them went in the net! The fixture was played on 6 February – the anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster – and I don’t think the two clubs have faced each other since (certainly not in the league anyway).
More evidence of just how bad things became under Mourinho this season.
mourinho
More from Jamie Jackson:
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer signalled more than a year ago that, despite being in charge of Molde, United was his dream job.
“It’s a dream, of course,” he said in November 2017 to United.no (the Manchester United supporters’ club Scandinavia). “You never know what path your career may take. If I do well with Molde for, let’s say five years, then an opportunity may suddenly unfold at some point. That’s a dream I have to be allowed to have, even though it seems quite distant right now.”
Of the reception he received from United fans when taking charge of Cardiff City in January 2014 at Old Trafford. “It wasn’t easy to stand there in the dugout as a Cardiff manager when the United fans cheered for me for almost the whole game. But it was like coming home. Old Trafford is home.”
Our financial reporter Jasper Jolly has been following developments on the stock market:
The world’s investors have delivered their verdict on Jose Mourinho’s exit from Manchester United, with the price of shares in the New York-listed football club rising by more than 4%.
Investment analysts said investors had reacted positively to United “biting the bullet” and firing Mourinho, after poor performance on the pitch and evident discord in the dressing room had started to threaten the company’s financials.
The company has guided the stock market to expect earnings of between £175m and £190m for the year to the end of June 2019. Revenues are expected at between £615m and £630m.
The immediate priority for the caretaker management will be to prevent an exodus of players, which could result in costly writedowns on their value, said John Tinker, a financial analyst at US research firm Gabelli. “What you can’t afford at this level is for the toxicity to spread,” he said.
United’s share price on the New York Stock Exchange rallied strongly over the summer, buoyed by the performances of Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba, who was a key part of France’s World Cup-winning midfield.
Bosses at Manchester United, led by executive vice chairman Ed Woodward, have acted to stem the damage of the worst start to a season in 28 years. The run of bad results contributed to the loss of more than a third of the club’s value, with shares falling as low as $17 in December, after hitting a peak of $27.70 per share in August.
The executive team should also focus on investing in its academy and bringing players through to the senior team, said Tinker. The academy programme costs around £2m per year, compared to more than £400m in spending on players under Mourinho, including a then world record £89m on Pogba.
But analysts at Deutsche Bank, in a note written before Mourinho’s departure, have highlighted the continued strength of Manchester United, which earns almost half its revenues from commercial operations, including sponsorships and brand licensing, on multi-year contracts.
Some good news for the next Manchester United manager. There will be no replays in the fifth round of the FA Cup this season, a development that is designed to reduce fixture congestion for the top six, who are all still in Europe. Yes, I’m as surprised as you are. Manchester United are in the top six.
Geoffrey Goff makes a good point in this email:
Paul, why don’t we look outside the usual suspects? Pochettino would be a great fit but, as someone else has already pointed out, why would he want to go to Old Trafford? Shedloads of money might help, but I think he’s more likely to end up at Real Madrid in any case.
So, why not take a look at Lucien Favre, the manager of Borussia Dortmund, currently topping the Bundesliga with what Wikipedia describes as “a dynamic, quick and attacking-minded football where ball possession and change of tempo alternate”. Favre is also well known for his ability to develop talented young players and introduce them into the first team. I’d settle for that. He might even be able to bring Jadon Sancho with him.
Not everyone in Manchester will be happy to see Mourinho go. The Lowry Hotel have made at least £537,000 from his 895-night stay in the city. He could have bought a big house for that – although spending money hasn’t been his forte in the last few years.
Guess what the Fiver is about today?
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That contract feels longer by the year.
And David Moyes' Manchester United contract still has six months left to run 🤣 pic.twitter.com/36pYbtvfwM
— B/R Football (@brfootball) December 18, 2018
Earlier in the season, when Inter visited Camp Nou in the group stage of the Champions League, we published an article about one of Mourinho’s greatest moments: when he beat Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals and went on to win the treble with Inter. Look at how happy he was in those pictures. Very little of that old fire has been on show this season.
José Mourinho signed 11 players as Manchester United manager. The only real success I can see in there is Zlatan, the one who cost nothing.
Eric Bailly: £30m
Zlatan Ibrahimovic: free
Henrikh Mkhitaryan: £30m
Paul Pogba: £89m
Victor Lindelof: £30.7m
Romelu Lukaku: £75m
Nemanja Matic: £40m
Alexis Sanchez: swap with Mkhitaryan
Diogo Dalot: £19m
Fred: £52m
Lee Grant: £1.5m
Some sympathy from below the line.
He's not the special one. He's a very naughty boy.
And toxic. I remember his time at Real Madrid. I was living in Barcelona at the time. I don't know how much his behaviour there was covered in the UK press - the tantrums at press conferences, the waiting in the car park after a match to harrass the referee, poking Barça's coaching assistant in the eye & then pretending he couldn't even remember the guy's name. And the results on the pitch were nothing to write home about - just 2 trophies despite all the galácticos & we hammered them 5-0. His time is past. No major club needs this idiot on their books. Bye bye, Jose.
And some tidy wordplay.
The end of an error.
Steven Gerrard has also been asked about Mourinho:
Big news, but it’s none of my business. He’s obviously a world-class manager. He’s a winner. How can I sit here and say anything bad about José Mourinho? He’s a serial winner.
He’s been sacked at Manchester United but he’s won them a couple of trophies. He’s done the best job since Alex Ferguson’s left. He came in and put a couple of trophies in the cabinet. I don’t think you can criticise him too much.
It will be interesting to see which direction they go in next. Although none of the Manchester United fans will care what I say about it, so it’s none of my business.
It’s hard to believe that just last month José Mourinho was celebrating on the pitch after Manchester United had beaten Juventus in Turin. Where does he go now? Mourinho has looked like a man in need of a rest for some time. Football management – and especially his confrontational style of football management – is a wearying game.
Perhaps he should follow Pep Guardiola’s example and take a sabbatical. Guardiola moved to New York for a year and enjoyed the relative anonymity that came from living in Manhattan (on the street where John Lennon was shot). He attended the US Open in Flushing Meadows, went to the Ryder Cup in Chicago and made time for a spot of lunch with Alex Ferguson, but Guardiola’s time in the city was really about stepping back from football for a while. Mourinho looks as if he needs some time away from the game too.
Mauricio Pochettino refused to talk about the Manchester United job today but did send his commiserations to Mourinho.
“I want to send my best wishes to him. I feel so sorry because you know very well, I have a very good relationship with him. He’s a very good friend and it’s sad news what happened today. It’s not my business what happens in another club. Only I want to send my best wishes to José.”
Jürgen Klopp has been speaking about Mourinho today. It was United’s dire 3-1 defeat at Liverpool that proved the final straw for the club’s hierarchy and Klopp reflected:
When I met him, he never changed. He’s a very competitive guy, very ambitious, really competitive. He has all my respect, he’s been unbelievably successful. I can imagine in the last few months especially they were not a joy for anybody, especially not for him. It’s not nice that he had to face these questions every day, that’s a problem. But apart from that, nobody can take away all the things he won.
I wish personally that he has that in his mind when he leaves and not a few other things that happened in last few months. He’s an outstanding manager, all the rest I have no idea, you have to ask other people.
Peter Pollock makes a fair point: “Why would Pochettino go to United? He’s got a settled team ready to move into a fantastic new stadium and a chairman who lets him get on with the job, which he’s very good at.”
I think there have definitely been times (last summer perhaps) when Old Trafford would have appealed – but will Pochettino want to walk away when his transitional work is so close to being done?
Don’t ask me, ask Paul Campbell, who returns to the hot seat ... now!
Here are a couple of nifty charts showing how Mourinho outperformed his predecessors, but fell too far short of his rivals’ high standards.
Managers
Others
Josh Halliday went to chat with the United fans milling around outside Old Trafford – judging by their comments, Ed Woodward might want to exit via the back door later on.
Resolve the Paul Pogba situation, rebuild the defence and put someone, anyone, in charge of transfers. Here’s Paul Wilson on the next United manager’s in-tray:
A lot of the talk today has been about who replaces Mourinho – but where will the Portuguese head next after checking out of the Lowry? Early predictions from the bookmakers suggest he could return to Real Madrid or Internazionale, or hold out with his giant payout until the Portugal national team job comes up. Any Chinese Super League club, at a tidy 11-2, looks the best bet to me.
Solskjaer in the running for caretaker role
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is the current favourite to be United’s caretaker manager, it is understood. The 45-year-old is in charge of Molde but as Norway’s season finished in November, he may be free to retain that role and take over United now. What would occur when Molde start their new campaign in March is unclear.
Two and a half years can be a long time in football, as illustrated by this gallery. Not so long ago there were fans outside Old Trafford celebrating the fact they had signed Mourinho.
It will be interesting to see if the next manager continues to pick Romelu Lukaku. As pointed out by Martin Laurence in this article, the big striker has really struggled this season. He did not have a single shot against Liverpool on Sunday and has taken fewer shots than Virgil van Dijk since the start of October.
How about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as caretaker manager until the end of the season?
He played for the club for over a decade
He is responsible for the greatest moment in their history
He speaks English fluently
He has managerial experience
He is a patron of the supporters’ trust.
Heaven knows he’s miserable now. This is brilliant.
Farewell José pic.twitter.com/ug7DbHxpko
— swedemason (@swedemason) December 18, 2018
An email from Abaikoo Mensah:
Why is no one considering Arsène Wenger? He has everything United need.
Exciting football
Youth promotion
Winning trophies
Longevity
Hmmm.
Who might replace Mourinho?
Our esteemed football editor Marcus Christenson has selected 10 possible contenders to take over at the end of the season. Diego Simeone would be good fun.
Ryan Giggs, whose most recent game as Wales manager ended in a 1-0 defeat to Albania, also makes the list. Incidentally, Giggs was appointed caretaker manager after David Moyes was sacked in 2014. He won two of his four games in charge, giving him the same win percentage as Tim Sherwood.
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