The Sunday Mail
JOSE MOURINHO has challenged Manchester United’s stars to prove his revolution is on track by winning the first major silverware of his reign in today’s League Cup final against Southampton.
Given his remarkable success in 17 years as the world’s most fascinating and polarising manager, it’s understandable Mourinho labels the League Cup as only a “little detail” on a glittering CV including two Champions League triumphs and league titles in England, Spain, Italy and Portugal.
But the United manager is too shrewd an operator not to realise that perception is everything in the ‘what have you done for me lately’ world of the Premier League.
Mourinho knows he badly needs to qualify for the Champions League and win a cup or two to ensure players, fans and the club’s hierarchy remain in his corner.
A victory at Wembley could act as a catalyst to further success, just as it did when the League Cup was the first silverware of his maiden spell with Chelsea. Reminded he would become the first United manager to win a major trophy in their first season if his team beat Southampton, Mourinho responded: “First of all, you are right with ‘if’. ‘If’ is a big thing in football.
“But I think it is more important for the club than myself. I have so many good things in my career that I wouldn’t be influenced by a little detail.
“The important thing is the club and obviously the club won a trophy last season. Let’s try to win another one this season.
“Plus the quality and dimension of our football is very important and I realised that by the fans’ reaction, their happiness is very important, their empathy with the way the team plays.
“So it will be good for the group, it will be good for the club. It will also be good for me, obviously.”
United have won the League Cup four times in their history, most recently in 2010. Southampton were also celebrating that February weekend seven years ago, but it is a measure of their understated but remarkable rise that the victory came against Walsall in League One. Now firmly established in the Premier League, Claude Puel’s side might be underdogs on their first appearance at Wembley since 2010, but that’s nothing new for Saints.
“I know the last time Southampton won a cup was in 1976 against Manchester. It’s a long time and it will be fantastic to take a good result,” Puel said. —AFP.
