As somebody suggested earlier, appointing Mourinho is a desperate attempted to remain relevant. A last throw of the dice, maybe...
The real gamble is though that the man is a hurricane in management terms. He enthrals everybody in that Jose-centric whirlwind that is fascinatingly watchable and frighteningly uncontrollable in equal measure but, as often as not, just as quickly he leaves behind an expensive legacy of destruction and recrimination. Chelsea threw pots of money at repairing the damage done and, probably will do so again, now. It's an expense that one feels the Glazers are unlikely to happily meet though, for a third time, having by then already lavishly funded LVG and, no doubt, Jose too. At the same time, they can't afford to sell their golden goose if a club. They're stuck with each other, Utd and the Glazers. Fair to say too that they deserve each other...
The lack of forward thinking combined with blind faith in the wrong people (Ferguson handpicking Moyes/ Woodward's transfer policies) have now left them dangerously exposed. Their only clear policy now seems to be entirely reactionary. Worse again for them, their misguided sense self-importance and infallibility impair their reaction speed (such as only now addressing their academy) and crucially their decision making (signing Van Persie ahead of City and retaining Rooney at such costs were Pyrrhic victories, for example).
They really are not that far off of falling into, not just a state of repair but, an irreparable state.
If Juve are the Old Lady of Italian football, Utd are in danger of becoming the Norma Desmond of English football. An ageing drama queen lurching around a crumbling mansion, grumbling about how she used to be a star(!) and screeching that she's 'ready for my close up now, Mr Murdoch!'. Only Murdoch and the rest of the sycophantic media, like de Mille in the Sunset Boulevard, will have long since moved on to other projects, brighter stars.
They'll go for Mourinho, in my humble etc. Their ego and self-aggrandisement simply won't allow them to stand idly by whilst City appoint Pep. It has ever been thus. When we re-appointed Big Mal, they chose Big Ron; after Mc Neil came from Scotland, they jobbed Ferguson. They got lucky in those days. They had people who planned or they aligned themselves with those who did. The creation of 'the Big Five' for the notorious ITV deal and their going public, have them a huge financial advantage. We suffered dismally because we tried to keep up with the Jones's of Trafford.
Now, the poles have been reversed. It took a near-miracle to get us out of the shadows and back into the spotlight. Given our owner's financial clout and our growing our ever-increasing revenues, it will take something similar (or indeed more earth shattering) to rescue Utd, should the (surely inevitable) tenure of Mourinho end as chaotically as most of his previous appointments.
The conventional wisdom is that Utd are 'too big a brand' to be allowed fail and will always have a greater cachè than everybody else. That's probably what old Mr Gimbel thought when he looked across at Macy's first fancy Christmas window.
Interesting times ahead...
