It's that old Red Devil called José again

I have to admit, I felt some pity for Louis van Gaal on Saturday evening. As he sat before his "friends" of the press, the FA Cup ostentatiously placed in front of him, it was impossible not to feel sympathy towards the Dutchman for not even being allowed his moment for winning the most famous national trophy in the world without being upstaged by José Mourinho, who was on the diametrically opposite side of London, apparently watching a boxing undercard at the O2 Arena.

Without Mourinho even opening his mouth he managed to install himself as the new manager of Manchester United, before the old one had even been told he wasn't anymore. The finger of blame pointed squarely at Mourinho's people, from whom Machiavellian games have been afoot ever since the Portuguese left Chelsea in December. Mourinho was seen to be after the United job from the minute he was fired for a second time by the club. Some even think that he was gunning for the job when he left Madrid, but ended up back in the arms of Chelsea as a consolation prize. With José you wouldn't put anything past him.

Even though I think it best for all concerned for van Gaal to move on, his palpable bitterness on Saturday night was understandable, even if he still can't see why he just hasn't been good enough. But, no matter how bad a season he's had, no matter how badly his relationship with some players has sunk, and no matter how turgidly Manchester United have played at times, van Gaal had, at least, delivered some silverware of merit, and with a side of exciting young players who should do the club well in seasons to come.

This is football's cruel streak laid bare, or at least 'corporate' football. Despite the cup, Van Gaal's Manchester United has, simply, not delivered on expectations. Consecutive seasons outside the Champions League, dry, stifled, defensive football, and single-goal wins that make Mourinho's celebrated pragmatism look quite lary.

The question is, will Mourinho do any better? Will his win-at-any-costs, defend-at-any-costs philosophy deliver any more expansive football than the snoozefests that van Gaal was serving up at the nadir of his tenure? At Chelsea Mourinho got away with it: successive managers have been called on by Roman Abramovich to deliver sexy, free-flowing, high-scoring football. Probably the only one of the Russian's ten coaches to have delivered on this expectation was Carlo Ancelotti, who says in his autobiography that even when Chelsea were winning by telephone number scores he was still getting bollockings from Abramovich. But Mourinho prevailed because, for the most part, he seemed to deliver the success that the club and its fans craved (though never the Champions League, the honour of which went to Roberto Di Matteo).

So, as sales of red-coloured Mourinho scarves start to do brisk businesses on the streets around Old Trafford, the phase "be careful of what you wish for" should be the cautioning guidance to all who have championed his succession to the job at United. Don't get me wrong: Mourinho brought to Chelsea success on a scale I could never have imagined as a teenager as I watched mid-table mediocrity (and relegation) from the cold, exposed terrace of The Shed. I have robustly defended the theatrics and imagined conspiracies, and most of the nonsense that came with Mourinho's time at Chelsea because, well, to be utterly mercenary about it, it won us trophies. It won the very thing that all football fans crave (spare me the 'ever-so-'umble routine of 'pure' fans who claim they're just happy to turn up).

© Simon Poulter 2015

But there is something unhinged about Mourinho, which this season now past brought out into the open, almost from the very beginning. It was the preening, pouting, petulant Mourinho, losing the plot within the first 90 minutes of the season by admonishing Dr. Eva Carneiro and physio Jon Fearn towards the end of that game with Swansea at Stamford Bridge.

We all lose it now and then, and one would hope that most of us would say sorry when we do so without reason. But Mourinho compounded the problem by publicly demoting Carneiro three days later, losing - in my view at least - the dressing room in the process, before the entire house of cards came tumbling down in the ensuing weeks as the 2014-15 Premier League champions slumped ever closer to the relegation zone. There was only one outcome. Yet again, Mourinho departed a club under a cloud in his third season with them.

Manchester United's board will be aware of all this. And the conservatives amongst it who still have a voice will have expressed the view that Mourinho is too much of a liability, too much of a threat to the traditions that, actually, the club upholds to its credit. As much as I loathed Sir Alex Ferguson's overbearing nature, especially towards referees and officials, and the concept of time itself, he produced successful teams over successive seasons by building on the club's traditions.

There is, of course, a lot of Mourinho in that behaviour, but whereas Ferguson maintained it until the last, it vanished for Mourinho, exemplified by Diego Costa's bib-toss at White Hart Lane, just two weeks before the manager was sacked. Van Gaal is said to have lost his players' respect in similar fashion, with stories of United players ignoring their manager's e-mails, not to mention the smartphone antics on the team bus outside Upton Park, which would have been unthinkable under Ferguson. Mind you, it's highly unlikely that the Manchester United bus would have left it so late to leave for an away ground under Ferguson.

There are also more practical concerns to come, should - as expected - United announce Mourinho, possibly tomorrow, as their new manager, with the biggest being United's policy towards youth. It characterised Ferguson's 27-year reign at Manchester United, not the least of which his personal nurturing of the 'Class of '92' - Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Butt and the Nevilles amongst them.

Given how Mourinho patently didn't trust the raw talent at his disposal at Chelsea - Under 18 and Under 21 players who have now won five out of the last seven UEFA Youth League titles, as well as FA Youth Cups - the powers-that-be at Old Trafford will have their work cut out to ensure that the progress made this season by Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Tim Fosu-Mensah have not been in vain. Questions, too, will be raised over the future of Juan Mata, who Mourinho dispensed with at Chelsea on the grounds that the former two-time club player of the year couldn't adapt to the system he wanted. A penny, now, for the Spaniard's thoughts.

Same goes for Ryan Giggs, given that Mourinho rarely travels alone, and will want to install his own Sopranos-crew of assistants, including Rui Faria, Silvino Louro, José Morais and Carlos Lalin. That said, Mourinho stuck with incumbent coach Steve Holland at Chelsea, and is reportedly considering the same for Giggs for the continuity effect. Giggs may also recognise that appointing José Mourinho is rarely for the long-term, and might choose to bide his time until the inevitable happens and Mourinho moves on - either bored and by his own volition, or because he has, once more, allowed the devil inside to get the better of him, even if it will, by then, be a red devil.