What would have happened if Jose Mourinho took over from Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United? | OneFootball

Jose Mourinho has revealed he agreed to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United but changed his mind after Chelsea came calling.

Mourinho was long touted as a potential successor to Ferguson even before the Scot announced his retirement but the appointment of David Moyes As United’s Chosen One suggested it was the club that decided against the Portuguese manager.

But now both Mourinho and Ferguson have confirmed the former Chelsea boss was offered the Old Trafford gig, only to turn it down at the last minute.

“He was offered the job, yes,” Ferguson said as part of a new Netflix documentary.

“I sat him down and explained the situation. As far as I was concerned, he was accepting. And then, within hours, it changed.

“One night, he phoned me and he was crying and he says, ‘Alex, I can’t take it. I’ve given my word to Chelsea and I’m not going to break my word’. The reason he gave to me, I could understand, but I was disappointed.”

But what kind of world would we be living in had Mourinho stuck to his initial agreement? Here are seven things that may have happened had Mourinho replaced Ferguson.

United’s immediate post-Ferguson signings are (a lot) better

David Moyes’ tenure was doomed from the start given how poor United’s summer transfers were.

Ferguson’s brilliance had papered over a lot of cracks in an underwhelming squad and it was in need of a facelift. The problem is that United failed to land many of their major targets.

That was in part due to the ineptitude of chief executive Ed Woodward, but there are also plenty of reports that top players did not fancy playing under Moyes and being told to ‘be more Jagielka’.

Moyes also tried to stick to what he knew, attempting to sign both Leighton Baines and Marouane Fellaini from his old club. United were only successful in the latter and parted with £27.5m to do so.

Let’s compare Fellaini to some of the names that also made moves that summer. Mourinho signed Willian and Andre Schurrle for Chelsea, each for less than what United paid for Fellaini. Mesut Ozil also moved to the Premier League and even if the two did not have the best of relationships at Madrid, Mourinho could have convinced him to join the reigning champions.

Top players are hesitant to commit to the kind of unknown that Ferguson’s departure represented but with Mourinho there, United would have had a much bigger pull.

Losing the queen bee in Ferguson was always going to be a blow but United had attempted to ease the succession plan by ensuring the Scot’s final group of assistant managers stuck around. It was with them that Moyes made his first, and perhaps most influential, mistake of his United career.

Perhaps it was a desire not to be seen in Ferguson’s shadow but for whatever reason, Moyes sacked Mike Phelan, Rene Meulensteen and Eric Steele to replace them with his own backroom staff from Everton. Bryan Robson would later point out that none of them “had won a thing as coaches”.

Mourinho would likely have made changes but brought in assistants who had been there and done that. The Portuguese manager has primarily worked with the same group who have been with him through league title wins, Champions League trophies and much more success.

Mourinho and his team would not have been overawed by the challenge.

United win another title and then it all explodes

A quintessential Mourinho trait is success followed quickly by an irrecoverable implosion.

Take his second tenure at Chelsea. Mourinho built a team that won the 2015/16 title and then subsequently exploded the following season.

It is easy to see a world where United win another title only for Mourinho to then fall out with everyone the next season.

The United squad, while in need of some fresh faces, did have the kind of characters Mourinho likes to work with. Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand were the veteran hardman defenders. Rooney the prolific striker. Add a player like Cesc Fabregas, who Mourinho signed for Chelsea a year later, and there is enough there for him to work with.

But after the title is won, Mourinho won’t be there to pick up the pieces.

Moyes has a statue at the Hill Dickinson Stadium

The ripple effect of Mourinho going to United stretches far beyond M16.

Firstly, Moyes does not leave Everton and he was already at Ferguson-like levels of job security, even without the trophies.

His final season at Goodison saw the club finish fifth but the year after he left, Everton sunk down to 11th, something that is often forgotten given the drop-off United experienced.

With Moyes still at the helm, it is unlikely such a decline would have occurred, with the Roberto Martinez years setting Everton back a long way.

Moyes was looking likely to stay for another few season at least and say he was able to win a trophy in that time, it would have made him Everton’s most successful manager of the modern era.

Marcus Rashford may not have had a breakout moment

When Moyes was sacked, Louis van Gaal was chosen to replace him and when it comes to Van Gaal’s treatment of youth players compared to Mourinho’s, it is night and day.

When at Barcelona, Van Gaal gave first-team debuts to Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Carlos Puyol and Victor Valdes. At Ajax, he did the same for Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf and Patrick Kluivert. David Alaba got his first taste of senior football under Van Gaal at Bayern.

Meanwhile Mourinho would prefer to play a 34-year-old than an unproven youngster.

The one player that would most have an effect on is Marcus Rashford, who was given his breakthrough by Van Gaal in the 15/16 season, against Arsenal no less. Would Mourinho have done similar? Almost certainly not.

In that world, it’s not difficult to see Rashford being farmed out on loan for game time and his career taking a much different turn.

Wayne Rooney does not hand in a transfer request

One of the first major problems Moyes inherited was the club’s biggest player wanting to leave.

Wayne Rooney had already told Ferguson he felt it was time to go and the appointment of Moyes was unlikely to have swayed him in that decision, even if the two had worked together at Everton in the past.

So what if it was Mourinho and not Moyes? Chances are Rooney does not throw the toys out of the pram and instead gets a nice phone call from the Portuguese boss explaining how important he is in the future plans.

Mourinho loved a powerful striker and so it would have been interesting to see how the England goalscorer performed under the Portuguese boss.

Juan Mata becomes a Chelsea legend

Mourinho pretty much took one look at Mata and said “nah”, which even at the time seemed a bizarre decision.

It was only a year on from Mata being named Chelsea’s player of the year but Mourinho believed his lack of work rate and no obvious position in his system meant it was time to get rid, even to a title rival in United.

But it is likely only Mourinho who could have wielded such power at Chelsea. If another manager was in charge and without the credit that Mourinho had, chances are Roman Abramovich and the board would said “no, you are not selling one of best players to Manchester United” and instead told the new manager to find a way to make it work.

Another manager likely finds a tactic that can incorporate Mata while still getting the best out of him and there’s a reasonable chance he reaches Eden Hazard level of admiration from Stamford Bridge fans.