Paul Ince: If Mourinho doesn’t get the tools, there’s a real chance he’ll go

Manchester United legend Paul Ince speaks on Jose Mourinho’s future at the club before the new season gets underway next week…

You know what Jose Mourinho is like, this is nothing we haven’t seen before – we saw it at Chelsea, there’s a tendency, when he’s not happy with things, that he shows it.

He moans about things you think there’s no reason to, but that’s him down to a tee.

It started last season – he was coming out in the press and openly having a go at a few of his players, which you don’t want to hear, you want to keep that internally – and it’s carried on from there.

Mourinho’s definitely in one of those moods where he’s clearly not happy. He’s still living in a hotel in Manchester, that can’t be easy.

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For the life of me, as a manger, I can’t understand that set-up. I understand staying in a hotel at the start, until you find yourself a house and settle in. You can’t ever settle in at a hotel, no matter how nice the suite is.

If your family is living hundreds of miles away in London, you’re going to miss them. I’d be grumpy in that situation, too.

With his living arrangements, Mourinho doesn’t have that personal escape – I think it’s a bit strange he hasn’t found himself a place where he can feel more comfortable.

He’s been grumpy for a while and I’m sure that’s a part of it.

A negative pre-season

You don’t want to see all this negativity. It’s the start of the season, it’s supposed to be an exciting time.

The fans want to see a different Manchester United, a more attacking one which we didn’t see last season.

He should be talking about the players coming to Old Trafford, how he’s changed the style and how it’s going to be exhilarating.

But we’re less than a week away from the start of the season it’s doom and gloom. Bad signals are coming out of Manchester United, it’s not good and I just don’t see any positivity there.

Time to Mou-ve on?

Jose has said that he wants to stay at United for life. To be fair, most managers would say that.

But managers do get frustrated. They want to take the club forward, they want to build and bring players in. He sees Liverpool spending big and he wants to compete.

If he feels he’s not getting that from Ed Woodward and the Glazers, he’s going to be grumpy.

If Jose doesn’t get the tools he feels he needs to win this title, then there’s a real chance that he will just go.

The start of the season is so important for United, they’ve got to get off to a good one. If not, it’s going to go back to the same situation as last season, where the fans were on his back.

If it does, he’ll say enough’s enough and walk out – or the board might say the same and make a change.

The Martial situation

It’s a difficult one. It’s all based on circumstances – how his wife comes out of the birth, were there issues with the baby and things like that where you have to stay for a few days.

If that wasn’t the case, once I’d seen my three born the next day I was back in training.

So, you can see it from both sides what Mourinho is trying to say. We just don’t know the ins and outs of the birth.

However, is it really a subject we should be talking about? We keep talking about things that aren’t relevant to this season, where Jose has come out and said something when I don’t think he’s had to.

Hopefully Mourinho and Martial sort it out. On his day, Martial’s very good and he just needs more games. He’s still young, has all the attributes to be a world class player and you wouldn’t want to lose him.

Players coming back early

When I played in Euro 96 and got to the semi-finals, I had two-and-a-half weeks off and then was back into it.

It was never an issue for me. I just love football. After a week or two on the beach, I couldn’t wait to get back playing with my team mates.

Players have to keep fit anyway – Thomas this summer has been hill running and all sorts to stay fit – players at tournaments don’t lose their fitness.

These tournaments are once every two years, I don’t see it as a hardship. I’d like to think they’d want to come back early.

And, if Mourinho is short on the ground, too right get them back. He’s got games to win and can’t afford to give them extra time off.

As nice as it sounds, as a manager, you’ve got to hit the ground running. He needs his best players there. There should be no qualms about it whatsoever. You get plenty of rest time during the season anyway.

When I was playing under Sir Alex, there were times where we’d played at a World Cup or Euros and he’d give us a week off during the season instead.

He’d put a list up of five or six players who were off for a week, two or three times a year. If he felt the team was good enough to win the next game he’d say “Incey, get yourself away for a week”.

There’s always ways to get the time off without affecting the start of a new season. When it’s time to work, you come back and work, that should be the same for any player.

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