adminLONDON. — There are few football managers who understand symbolic gestures as well as Jose Mourinho. He knows what quotes will make the back page. He knows what people will say when he leaves the bench early, three points seemingly secure.
And he certainly knows the implications of substituting a player only brought on 27 minutes earlier.
So when he handed Juan Mata football’s ultimate embarrassment, Manchester United’s new manager would have been aware that it would, once again, call into question his relationship with the Spanish playmaker.
For a player and manager who have worked together for just six months before now, few have attracted as many headlines as Mata and Mourinho.
When the Portuguese arrived at Stamford Bridge for the second time, he inherited a Chelsea team with Mata at its creative centre.
Mata had just been named in the PFA team of the season. He had been at Chelsea for two years, and been chosen as the club’s player of the season in each of those campaigns. He had provided 25 assists and 18 goals, a more than decent return in a side that finished sixth and third, and never really challenged for a title.
And yet, within six months, Mata was not only out of the club, but he had been completely ostracised.
First, Mourinho made it clear that, for all his past achievements at the club, Mata was not first choice. He started just five Premier League games before December, and failed to complete 90 minutes in any of those games.
By the time he was replaced against Southampton on the first day of 2014, with Chelsea struggling to find a way through at St Mary’s, the game was up. He would never play for the club again.
Mata would later reveal that he had “no relationship” with Mourinho, and that “there was no dialogue”. He was outside of the manager’s plans and, as is the Portuguese’s way, became an example to the other players.
Creativity is one thing. Goals and assists used to be thought of as the key ingredients for a No 10. But they are not enough for Mourinho, who demands a greater work rate, more defensive effort, and the sort of performances that simply do not suit the diminutive Spaniard.
Mourinho paid lip service to the idea of keeping Mata. He gave the player’s representatives reassurances that he was wanted. He told the press he had no intention to sell. But the writing was on the wall, and when Manchester United came in with a £37m bid, Mata was gone.
In six months under Mourinho Mata had managed just two assists, and not a single goal. He looked a shadow of his former self, and even the smile that usually accompanies his play had slipped away.
Three years after Mourinho took over at Chelsea the same thing looks likely to happen again.
Mata has scored 21 league goals, and provided 13 assists since David Moyes took him to Old Trafford, more than any other United player. — Mailonline.
Online Reporter