You may have noticed there has been an election in the United States of America. In the rainforest of hindsight essays spawned by this event, a three-word phrase from the author Ian McEwan stood out. Donald Trump’s forthcoming administration will be, McEwan said, “government by bonfire”.
It is some image, an alarm call. And for some reason the mind drifts towards José Mourinho.
There is an unpleasant pitchfork militancy to a certain slice of America – 27 per cent of the population voted Trump – and as someone whose early years were spent in fascist Portugal, Mourinho might just be able to recall some of that atmosphere.
There has been a pitchfork militancy to him, too, this season and our immediate reaction is that this is not good, not harmonious and is destined to explode. This is what happened at Chelsea a year ago after all. Mourinho was sacked and Chelsea ended up 10th, behind Stoke.
The message we receive constantly is that harmony is good. Look at Jurgen Klopp. Everyone likes Klopp and you can see why: happy, touchy-feely and most importantly, effective. It looks as if his harmonious methodology inspires the players.
Palpable discord
Whereas what was it Chelsea said on Mourinho’s departure last December? “Palpable discord”, that was it.
Yet not only is this likely to be a superficial reading of Klopp’s approach at Liverpool – Daniel Sturridge has confirmed it’s not all laughs – it also reduces the situations at differing workplaces to simplifications. What if, for example, to get harmony, you need some disharmony? What if, to get some warmth, you need to start a fire?
“To hell with soft-shoeing around” – that’s Alex Ferguson recalling his first week at Manchester United in 1986. Ferguson was faced with a booze culture that was undermining United’s fitness, and therefore results, and while “starting with a showdown hardly eased the edginess I was feeling”, Ferguson got on with it. Sometimes managers have to confront confrontation as a policy.
Conflict as a strategy seemed to be the Mourinho way at Chelsea (first time round), Inter and Real Madrid, with the ultimate aim being unity of purpose. That’s how you get Porto to win the Champions League.
There was intelligence underpinning that, just as there was with Ferguson at United. Ferguson lit bonfires. He did so to smoke out a stagnating club.
A problem for Mourinho is the perception that conflict as strategy may have had its day. Management by bonfire is all or nothing, or it can feel like it. What does “the modern player” make of it?
At the end at Chelsea it was not working and every time there’s a little outburst, be it about “Einsteins” in the media, his hotel life being “a bit of a disaster” or his left-back failing to close down, it sounds like conflict is Mourinho’s impulse, no longer a calculation.
Striding languidly
Results don’t help, of course, nor does Paul Pogba’s failure so far to justify his world-record transfer fee; and then who will Mourinho see striding languidly up the touchline at Old Trafford this lunchtime? Arsene Wenger.
This will be the first time the two will have met since the publication of a book by a reporter close to Mourinho at Chelsea in which it was claimed Mourinho said of Wenger: “I will find him one day outside a football pitch and I will break his face.”
The book was published the week of Wenger’s 20th anniversary at Arsenal eight weeks ago and the quotation has not been denied. Wenger brushed it off, while Mourinho downplayed it saying he and Wenger had sat around the same dinner table a fortnight earlier. They were in company, they had broken bread.
Wenger’s anniversary should be in Mourinho’s favour. It should remind all of us that Wenger is into his 21st year as Arsenal manager – and the sense of ownership of the club that longevity provides. Mourinho has been in charge of Manchester United for 17 competitive matches, a finger-click.
While Wenger has a team considered to be developing into his best in a few years, Mourinho is only starting, and at a club that may look very different from the inside to how it appeared from afar.
With every risible corporate sponsorship, Mourinho is probably discovering why they took ‘Football Club’ off the United badge almost 20 years ago. Ferguson’s presence covered up so much at United.
So it’s all rather unsatisfactory – even before Wayne Rooney’s bad week.
And yet when he addresses his players before Arsenal, Mourinho can point to the Premier League table to show that a United win would take them to within three points of the allegedly rising Gunners.
That would not be a bad beginning, and it is only the beginning. Strange as it sounds, even fire-starters need time.
‘Streaky’ Pardew needs rapid reversal of fortune
Crystal Palace host Manchester City on a run of four straight Premier League defeats. Prior to that, Palace’s four games produced three wins and a draw. Such runs add weight to the idea that Alan Pardew is a “streaky” manager.
Is there such a thing? Maybe. It could be argued that last season Palace put together a streak of results in the FA Cup that took them to the final and, courtesy of Jason Puncheon, to a short-lived lead at Wembley. Puncheon’s goal led to Pardew’s florid touchline dance.
But Manchester United came back, Pardew retook his seat and Cup final defeat brought a partial review of Palace’s league season.
It ended with the Eagles 15th, having been as high as third after eight games and fifth on New Year’s Day.
But in the half-season after, Palace won just twice. It means that in their last 30 Premier League matches, Palace have won five. Their 2016 record reads: P30 W5 D7 L18.
That could be called streaky, or it could be call a worrying slump. One point above relegation, with 11 goals conceded in those last four games, Palace fans can take their pick.
West Ham may soon be pining for home comforts
West Ham United are one place below Crystal Palace due to a worse goal difference. West Ham have suffered from disorientation in the new London Stadium and might be glad to get away from it for a bit.
As three of West Ham’s next four league games are away, here is their chance. It’s just those matches are at Tottenham, Manchester United and Liverpool. The home game in between is against Arsenal.
Given that Slaven Bilic’s team have already lost four times away, come the middle of December when they have Burnley and Hull at home in four days, they could be pining soon for ye olde London Stadium.
