Is Mourinho making the same old mistakes?

As Manchester United bask in the glory of snagging Paul Pogba, their main summer transfer target, and capturing the Community Shield, signs of unrest bubble under the surface.

Amid the deluge of praise for a highly satisfactory week’s work at the Theater of Dreams, manager Jose Mourinho’s treatment of two World Cup winners, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Juan Mata, should set the alarms bells ringing.

Mourinho is notorious for his attacks on opposition coaches and players, from famously calling Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger a ‘voyeur’ to poking the late Tito Vilanova in the eye during a particularly contentious ‘Classico’ in his time at Real Madrid.

But it his treatment of his own players and staff, and the creation of divisions within the ranks that led to all out civil-war in his previous two clubs, that should cause disquiet around Old Trafford.

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We are less than a year removed from the infamous ‘three rats’ banners at Stamford Bridge displayed by fans who accused Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa of play that amounted to throwing in the towel to get Mourinho fired.

That marked a nadir for the then champion’s doomed title defence, the seeds of which were sown in the very first game of the 2015-16 season when the Portuguese insulted physio Eva Carneiro who had simply done her job, treating the injured Hazard, but thereby temporarily reducing the Blues to nine men.

In his time at Real Madrid, Mourinho found he could not break the deep bonds between the teammates of Spain’s most successful side as Iker Casillas and Sergio Romero took the high ground following controversial clashes with Barcelona, much to the Portuguese’s aggravation.

Though he has blamed everything from the press to referees, the notion that player power has pushed Mourinho out of his last two clubs is hard to dispute.

Forcing Schweinsteiger to train with the youth team has already prompted Fifpro member, Dejan Stefanovic, to call melodramatically for prison time for Mourinho.

Senior pros around Old Trafford however will have taken note of the German’s treatment and more so of the outright insult to Mata of being subbed as a substitute for the flimsy justification of needing more height to defend Leicester City’s late aerial attacks in the 2-1 Community Shield loss.

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The capture of Pogba will signal a clearing off the decks at United. Mata and Schweinsteiger are not thought to be short of offers with Juventus and Galatasaray believed to be among those interested in the German, while Ashley Young, Adnan Januzaj and Memphis may also be sold at the right price.

Mourinho is building his United at Old Trafford but if things don’t go to plan again we may see that late Wembley substitution as the canary in the coalmine of another expensive implosion for the former ‘special one’ at a top club.