An open letter to Mourinho and Manchester United — A match made in heaven

Firstly Mr. Mourinho, I would love to congratulate you on getting the Manchester United job. You’ve been craving for this job ever since Sir Alex left the throne vacant and now that it’s finally yours I’m sure you must be very excited about it. Yay!

I’ve been a Manchester United supporter since late 2003. I’m from India and I used to garner all the information about the Premier league through newspapers before televised broadcasts. And only in 2004 did India finally started receiving broadcasts to some of the matches of the Premier League. You just can’t possibly know how excited I am to finally have a manager manage United who can get shit done.

Secondly, to all the folks in the Upper Echelons at Manchester United, if you knew that Giggs was an inevitable choice of becoming a United manager at some point of time in the future after Sir Alex left, why not give him a coaching role with the reserves or the under-21 team to start with?

Giggs played with 3 different generations of teams. He worked under one of the greatest managers in world football, why not give him a chance to explore his coaching abilities at a lower level? With his playing career that lasted 20 years and plus working under experienced managers such as Sir Alex and Van Gaal, Giggs had everything at his disposal to showcase himself as a manager, albeit even if it was at a lower level.

If you look at Barcelona a few years back, Pep Guardiola (The prodigal son of Johan Cryuff) was a graduate of the famous La Masia academy. Guardiola went on to play for Barcelona for nearly a decade. After he retired, he was hired as the coach for Barcelona B team. He coached them for a year achieving promotion to the Segunda Division. Later that year, he was announced as the coach of Barcelona.

Guardiola went undisputed during his time in Barcelona and became one of the top managers in world football instantly by winning 3 La Liga and 2 Champions league titles. The 2 champions league titles came at the expense of Manchester United. Guardiola today is one of the top managers in world football and the most sought after too.

A similar story was ostensibly illustrated by Real Madrid. Zidane, who had an illustrious career as a player winning everything that was there to win (Headbutting Materazzi was also one of them) was initially hired as a personal adviser to the then coach Jose Mourinho. And then made the transition to Assistant coach under Carlo Ancelotti. However, when Ancelotti was sacked Zizou was assigned to the Real Madrid B team as a manager. A year and a half later when Rafael Benitez was sacked as the manager by Real Madrid, Zidane was brought to the helm. Madrid were in pieces at that time, far off the pace and no where near the competing level of Barcelona.

Fast forward to the end of the season, under Zidane, Real Madrid finished second to Barcelona by a margin of one point and won the Champions League (2016). Of course it’s too soon to put Zidane in the league of ‘extraordinary managers’ as of yet. But the signs are there.

I’m not saying that this is model approach that clubs should internalize, but it was there in the making. Manchester United could’ve given a similar role to Ryan Giggs after ‘The Moyes’ debacle. Louis Van Gaal never insisted on having Giggs as his assistant. Giggs could’ve easily moved down the order then, worked with the academy graduates and probably in a year or 2 could’ve proved his worth to and taken up the mantle at United. If anything, United only stalled Giggs’ progress because of which he has now left the club. After 29 years of association with one club, Ryan Giggs has left the building.

I hope to see him in the future at Old Trafford again, as a United manager.

Lastly, Mr Mourinho. I know you’ve worked with a squad of 20–25; not more than that. You don’t like bulk. You don’t want to be confused. You work with Specialists. You are a Specialist. I get it. We all get it. But you also need to understand that Manchester United is not some club that came to the fore a decade ago, like Chelsea. It’s been rich in history and platinum plated in the current footballing era. You will not be the only shark here and you will most certainly not be the only one with a God Like attitude. You’ve brought in Zlatan for that.

And I totally understand if you’ll only use the players you’ve bought for the entire season to win silverware. I get it. But please while doing that, give a chance to Rashford, Lingard, Fosu-Mensah and Andreas, these guys are good. With your experience, they can go on to become great footballers. United needs that. The Premier League needs that. Don’t sell them or loan them out.

A club like United has always thrived on their academy graduates. People love it when a youngster from the academy gets a breakthrough. They feel like that young guy is one of their own, someone they can relate to, someone they can connect with. It happened with the Class of ’92 and it happened last season with Rashford. In doing so, this could aesthetically rub off your only black spot of ‘not giving youngsters a chance’ from your career.

I know you want to sell Schweinsteiger. And everyone knows your beef with Mata (What that beef is no one knows!) and then there are others that you really don’t want to work with. And please don’t let Blind go. Please!

Although I understand. I’m only a fan. You know what’s best and what will work for you, you know what’s best to get United back where it belongs. And I know for sure, you want to get back on top of the Football Chain. So, so be it!

However, it’s been good to see your humble side in the interviews that we’ve seen so far. In the past you’ve been at your pragmatic-direct best in giving out statements but this time its been different. It’s like you’ve learnt the art of finesse. I’ve always liked your direct statements, whether they be sarcastic or punny. I’ll be honest when I say that I’ve hated your Chelsea teams over the years. Your first stint with Chelsea was pure domination. And everyone hated you and called you arrogant. Maybe you were. But that took you to the Pinnacle of Football.

The Premier League needs to see more of your finesse side now. Sir Alex once referred you as the George Clooney of football. Maybe you should take it up. And I really hope that you stay for more than 3 years with us. I’d like that. We all would love that.

I’m really excited for this season. I hope we have a good one. And yes, thanks for getting Zlatan, Mikki, Bailly to United. And most of all, Pogba back. You’ve shown that being in the Champions League is not the only reason players move on to OTHER clubs. And most importantly, in doing so, You and United have won a small battle with the Spanish and German clubs that they cannot have all the coveted players with them. This may be a tilt in power. Possibly. I don’t know. Only time will tell.