The Political Economy of Football V2

Jose Mourinho was keen to point out in interviews after yesterday's 3-2 fight back win over Newcastle United that he has a contract that lasts until 2020. If they got rid of him now, it would cost the club £29m which is a lot even for United. If they hang on until the end of the season, depending on how United do in the Champions League, it could go down to £10m which is a more tolerable sum: The cost of sacking Jose I do find Mourinho a miserable individual, the sarcastic one rather than the special one. But I do have sympathy with him on three counts: There is far too much short termism as far as managers are concerned. Average tenures are falling all the time. Events can conspire against even the best managers. He has been under siege from the print media who find that campaigns to topple managers (or politicians) feed their egos and their sales figures The entitlement sense of United fans is very high. There will be not another Sir Alex Ferguson: they broke the mould....

The papers this morning are full of pictures and text about the public spat at the training ground between Manchester United's charm merchant manager Jose Mourinho and Paul Pogba. In the meantime, the share price has been falling. Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball has been taking an in depth look at the club's finances: Made of stone Maguire concludes, 'United are in a strong financial position. Woodward’s recent comment that “playing performance doesn’t really have a meaningful impact on what we can do on the commercial side of the business” won’t have gone down well with the United faithful.' 'This is further evidenced by United’s board’s refusal to accede to Mourinho’s summer transfer requests suggesting that they don’t particular care, or need to care, what the fans think, and whether you’re a Red or ABU, that isn’t good for football.' Some fans of lower league clubs with barmy owners would be happy to have United's problems. It has been sugge...

José Mourinho said that Manchester United would have to spend more money to build a team capable of winning the Premier League after yesterday's draw with Burnley. When it was put to him that he had spent nearly £300m on players since joining United at the start of last season, he said: 'It is not enough. City are buying full backs for the price of strikers.' Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball has dismissed Mourinho's claims as 'fake news'. He points out that United's spend on both players and wages has been ahead of City over the last five years. The wage bill went up by 12.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2017/18. In the first year of the Premier League in 1992 Manchester United and Arsenal had the same wage bills. Since then United have paid out £413m more and their wage bill has increased by 4,220 per cent. Tony Cascarino, writing in The Times takes a different view. He argues that United do not have many world class players: 'They ha...