Why Mourinho contract extension is perfect for United

Jose Mourinho has confirmed that he has signed a new contract to stay at Manchester United, which couldn’t be any more perfect for United.

Manchester United have finally confirmed that manager Jose Mourinho will be staying on as manager until 2020 with the option for an extra year to be extended. The news comes in the midst of a frantic week for Manchester United with the signing of Alexis Sanchez which will make this a fantastic start to 2018 for the Manchester club.

While Mourinho did have another year on his three-year contract to go; there had been talks a few months ago that he was looking at a move to French giants Paris Saint-Germain where after an interview he gave with French Television channel Star TV back in November where he claimed that PSG had something ‘special’ and ‘magical’.

The news is perfect for United as while many might not be pleased with his antics or the way he sets his team up to play in particular games, there can be no denying that Jose Mourinho has been United’s best manager since Sir Alex Ferguson retired from the club in 2013 and after two disaster managerial appointments in both David Moyes and Louis Van Gaal, this is exactly the kind of stability that Manchester United need right now.

United have suffered from any kind of proper long-term planning since the day that Ferguson and then club CEO David Gill left the club to be replaced with Ed Woodward. United tried in vain to hire David Moyes to keep what Sir Alex Ferguson had built only to be sacked a year later, followed by bringing in Louis Van Gaal to turn United into a club that focused on possession football before opting to remove Van Gaal from his post to bring in an entirely different manager and style once again in Mourinho.

This is the biggest difference between both Manchester clubs right now. Manchester City have been targeting Pep Guardiola for years, since he was at Barcelona, and planned properly for him to come. City ensured that they had the right players in place for Pep, the right coaching staff and everything else for his arrival.

This is the biggest reason as to why the gap is currently as big as it is between United and City at the moment; it’s not about money, both clubs have spent an equally amount of ridiculous amount of cash, but City have recruited better than United because they actually have had an actual plan and strategy for the last five years. United have lacked this big time.

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And this is why keeping Mourinho is perfect for United. While he may have bought slightly older players in Nemanja Matic and Alexis Sanchez, Mourinho has typically bought players who are about to enter their prime at the age of twenty-four years of age or under in; Paul Pogba, Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelof and Romelu Lukaku.

The majority of the United team itself is quite young as well and this allows Mourinho a platform for himself – a young team that is eager to win trophies, to get Manchester United back to the level that they were once at and for Mourinho himself, he knows this is his opportunity to show that he himself can build a long-term squad and a legacy for himself.

Last season was quite disappointing in the Premier League with a sixth place finish, the club once again finishing outside the top four for a third season out of four but there was also two trophies won in the EFL Cup and the Europa League. Mourinho became the very first United manager in the clubs history to win a trophy in his first season, let alone two.

This season United have performed well, better than most will give them credit for, but have been unfortunate to be against a Manchester City team that will go down as one of the greatest sides in the history of the Premier League.

This gives United the option to plan ahead this summer to attempt to improve the squad and focus long-term now, for a further two years. They do need to be weary of Mourinho and his third season syndrome that has plagued him at every club but United above all else needs stability.