Special One Jose Mourinho's Manchester United face the sternest test of all — combining an English Premier League title-push with Europa League football on Thursday nights
Jose Mourinho
Pep Guardiola. Jose Mourinho. Antonio Conte. Jurgen Klopp. Between them, there are 17 league titles spread across England, Spain, Germany and Italy. Mourinho and Guardiola have also won the Champions League, club football’s Holy Grail, twice. Add in Arsene Wenger, who will complete 20 years at Arsenal in October, and Mauricio Pochettino, the 44-year-old who took Tottenham Hotspur to the brink of the title last season, and it’s not hard to see why England has become the battleground for the world’s leading football managers.
Ranieri will be watched
The joker in the pack is Claudio Ranieri, whose achievements with Leicester City last season deserve a chapter in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Elsewhere in the English Premier League, Ronald Koeman has been tasked with bringing back the glory years to Everton, while Aitor Karanka has led Middlesbrough back to the Promised Land after seven seasons in the Championship. With the exception of Wenger, who is 66, Mourinho and Koeman, a youthful 53, none of these men is even 50. They can look forward to many more fruitful seasons.
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The most important season of his life? Manchester United’s Jose Mourinho
Each, however, faces unique challenges as the new season kicks off. Mourinho, more than 12 years after he slid across the Old Trafford touchline on his knees to celebrate a Porto equaliser that knocked Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United out of Europe, finally has the job he always coveted. He may have been adored at Stamford Bridge, and won three titles there, but for The Special One, the job that really mattered was always at the Theatre of Dreams.
The United squad he has inherited is a far cry from that he beat all those years ago. United’s highest league finish since Ferguson retired in 2013 has been fourth, and this season, they face the sternest test of all — combining a title push with Europa League football on Thursday nights. Lesser clubs would be tempted to utilise bench-warmers and reserves for the Europa League matches, but such is United’s stature that Mourinho is unlikely to get away with such a strategy.
He has bought well though, even if each signing has come at considerable cost. Paul Pogba isn’t worth anything like as much as what United paid for him, but he brings a direct physicality and presence that United’s midfield have lacked for years. Zlatan Ibrahimovic may not be risked for the European adventures, but even if he starts 25 league games, that will go a long way towards United regaining preeminent status in the English game. Eric Bailly shores up the backline, and Armenia’s Henrik Mkhitaryan adds a bit of stardust to a side that was terribly prosaic at times last season.
The expectations on the other side of the city will be no less. Those that have played under him — Zlatan a notable exception — usually talk of Guardiola’s methods with reverence. Under him, City will be far more clinical and there will be much more coherence to their play. But having managed so far in two leagues, Spain and Germany, where the competition is nowhere near as intense, Guardiola’s biggest test will be to harness resources effectively.
Last season, City reached the Champions League semi-finals, before exiting meekly against Real Madrid. The Abu Dhabi-based owners will want the Premier League title, but after having spent a billion dollars on building such a powerful squad, it’s European success that they crave for validation. Guardiola will be expected to deliver on both fronts.
Conte and Klopp have the advantage of starting the season without any European involvement. Their squads will not have to worry about midweek red-eye flights back from the farthest reaches of the continent. That won’t make the accountants happy, but it gives both men the chance to implement their ideas with relatively fresher squads. Conte has made one of the signings of the off-season, by taking the outstanding N’Golo Kante off Leicester’s hands.
Michy Batshuayi is a strong, powerful addition to the forward line, and if Conte can get Diego Costa in the mood again, Chelsea will be hard to beat. Klopp hasn’t had that sort of money to spend, apart from splurging £36 million on Southampton’s Sadio Mane. But he has already said it’s ‘my team’, leaving him with no room for excuses should things go wrong.
It should be a fascinating season.
Prediction: 1. Manchester City. 2. Manchester United. 3. Chelsea. 4. Tottenham.
Dileep Premachandran is Wisden India's editor-in-chief
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