With the managerial hot seat at Manchester United potentially up for grabs, soccersweep looks at the pros and cons of hiring the two best managers in world football.
The fact that they are arguably the best two in the game (honourable mention to the marvellous Diego Simeone) means that Manchester United should surely be looking at them.
But in muddied times under the vague leadership of Ed Woodward, it’s hard to know exactly what is going on at the club.
But, for our money, there is one perfect candidate for the job.
Pep Guardiola is a great manager who is clearly relishing the challenge of working in England.
Many believe that he has already accepted the job as manager of Manchester City and you would imagine that he probably has his pick of the elite in England – he would be welcomed with open arms at Chelsea and Manchester United too.
If both coaches were available now then it would be a tougher decision.
But the fact that JM is out of a job means that he is our clear favourite for the position.
Any team that has Pep at the helm is going to be competitive, and it seems as if he may well got to Manchester City – a club with huge resources.
If that happened, Manchester United would need as much help as they could get to remain competitive.
And giving Jose a head start would be the perfect decision by Woodward.
Mourinho, who has surely learned from his recent troubles, could get a couple of big signings in and start to shape the team in his image in advance of the arrival of Pep down the road.
If United don’t move for Mourinho now then both managers could be beyond their grasp by the summer.
That would leave the ageing Van Gaal, with his questionable methods, to fight off an ever more powerful City team which could then be driven by Guardiola. It’s a future that looks pretty bleak for Manchester United.
So, in terms of timing and general circumstances, we feel that Mourinho is the hands-down winner as the best appointment for Manchester United.
We fear for United if they don’t make it happen sooner rather than later and one narrow win in 9 shouldn’t be enough to keep the wolves from Louis van Gaal’s door.
