THE
STORY OF
MAn UTDAbove Robin van
Persie celebrates
with Michael
Carrick and
Rafael da Silva
after scoring
against Aston
Villa at Old
Trafford in
April 2013In the summer of 2015 Van Gaal was backed again in the transfer
market with the signings of Memphis Depay, Morgan Schneiderlin,
Bastian Schweinsteiger and Anthony Martial, and while they helped
United reach the top of the Premier League by the end of September,
it was not to last.
Van Gaal’s reign effectively came to an end with three consecutive
defeats to Bournemouth, Norwich City and Stoke City in December,
but he limped on until the end of the season as United looked for
his replacement.
The Dutchman preached the importance of possession, but this
involved too many backward passes. The Old Trafford crowd
regularly grew restless, chanting “attack, attack, attack!” after
being forced to sit through 11 consecutive games without a first-half
goal. By the end of the season, United had scored only 49 goals –
their lowest total for 26 seasons – to finish a disappointing fifth.
When Van Gaal did enjoy some success, it came too late; he
would guide United to their 12th FA Cup win with a 2-1 victory over
Crystal Palace in the final at Wembley, Jesse Lingard scoring
a spectacular winner in extra-time. However, this was not enough
to save the Dutchman, and two days after lifting the FA Cup United
terminated his contract. Not everyone was happy about it. “I was
devastated when Louis was sacked,” the United captain Wayne
Rooney has said. “For me, it was an absolute joy to work with him.
We should have kept him for a third season.”
Instead, United turned to José Mourinho, the revered former
Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid manager, who had been
sacked from his second spell with Chelsea the previous December
and been waiting for United.
Once again United hoped an expensive foray into the transfer
market would inspire a revival, and they brought in Zlatan
Ibrahimović, Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan then broke the world
transfer record to sign their former player Paul Pogba from Juventus
for £89.1 million.
In the Premier League, Mourinho’s United endured a frustrating
season; they were difficult to beat, losing only five times – the same
as the eventual champions Chelsea – but they drew too many
games, which kept them rooted to sixth in the table for four months
before eventually finishing there.
In the cup competitions this side was a different beast, and after
winning the Community Shield against Leicester City in Mourinho’s
first game, United added the League Cup with a 3-2 victory over
Southampton in the final in February, with two goals from
Ibrahimović and one from Lingard.
Towards the end of the season, Mourinho began to prioritise the
Europa League over the Premier League, believing it was United’s
best route back to the Champions League. They duly reached the
final in Stockholm, where they would face Ajax.
United became only the fifth side to win all three major European
trophies by defeating the Dutch side 2-0 with goals from Pogba
and Mkhitaryan.
“José’s obsession with trophies shone through,” Carrick has
recalled. “He was desperate to win the Community Shield to get
us in the winning habit, [which led to two more trophies]. José just
sees a way to win them.”116 The Story of Man Utd FourFourTwo.com