Netflix sport documentaries have a habit of reopening familiar debates, and a new series on Jos\u00e9 Mourinho has done exactly that. One of the clearest revelations is that, after leaving Real Madrid and before the next season began, Mourinho chose a return to Chelsea rather than taking over Manchester United, a decision also confirmed by Ferguson.<\/p>\n
That left United to appoint David Moyes, who arrived as \u2018The Chosen One\u2019 and lasted only 10 months. Mourinho, meanwhile, went back to Chelsea and won his third Premier League title there across two seasons. He later did join United in 2016, collecting the League Cup and Europa League before his spell ended in 2018.<\/p>\n
The question is a straightforward one: what if he had been installed before the 2013-14 campaign? Moyes inherited a squad that had already lost Paul Scholes to retirement for the second time, while United\u2019s summer spending brought in just three players. Marouane Fellaini was the headline arrival, with Juan Mata added in January as the season slid into difficulty.<\/p>\n
Even so, the squad was hardly barren. David De Gea was in goal, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidi\u0107 still anchored the defence, and Patrice Evra and Antonio Valencia offered trusted options at full back. Up front, Robin van Persie scored 18 in all competitions, Wayne Rooney 19, Javier Hern\u00e1ndez nine and Danny Welbeck 10.<\/p>\n
There were also bigger possibilities. United had previously explored Cesc F\u00e1bregas, while Gareth Bale held talks with the club in 2013 before moving to Real Madrid. Mourinho\u2019s reputation may well have made those conversations more persuasive.<\/p>\n
What is beyond dispute is how badly Moyes\u2019 United fared in the major fixtures. They won only one of 10 league matches against the traditional \u2018Big Six\u2019, finished seventh, and suffered heavy defeats, including two 3-0 losses at Old Trafford to Liverpool and Manchester City.<\/p>\n
Mourinho\u2019s strengths lay elsewhere. He was known for structure, control and results against elite opposition, and Chelsea\u2019s own 2013-14 record underlined the contrast. They finished third, took 18 more points than United, conceded only 27 league goals, and advanced further in both the Champions League and FA Cup.<\/p>\n
United may still have fallen short of silverware, but with Mourinho in charge, the outlook would almost certainly have been stronger, and Champions League qualification far more likely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Mourinho-led United in 2013 would likely have looked far stronger than the side Moyes inherited and managed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,179],"tags":[1162,1047,182],"class_list":["post-18455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-manchester-united","tag-analytics","tag-champions-league","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}