Jose Mourinho is now out of a job after being sacked at Roma. It has been a difficult few years for the Portuguese manager, and there may have been one big turning point in recent seasons.
It all could have been so different. ‘The Special One’ once urged Manchester United to sign Dutch defender Virgil Van Dijk before he moved to Liverpool in 2018.
A new centre-back, as seems to be the case every year at Manchester United, was the target for Jose Mourinho, as he felt the club could not rely on the options he had.
Eric Bailly had injury problems, as did Phil Jones, Victor Lindelof was struggling and Chris Smalling was perhaps the only reliable defender for the Red Devils.
It has been well-documented that Mourinho wanted Harry Maguire when the Englishman was at Leicester City but the club wouldn’t go near £65 million for the defender, before paying £80 million a year later, but less is known about United’s pursuit of Virgil Van Dijk, which was the priority.
Mourinho’s reason behind not signing Van Dijk
Before his move to Anfield, Van Dijk was linked with the Red Devils as well as Manchester City and Liverpool.
Chris Kamara, speaking on the BBC’s Proper Football podcast, revealed that he urged the Portuguese manager to sign the Dutch defender but one, perhaps unsurprising, reason was given behind why the club didn’t sing the colossal Premier League star.
“I can exclusively reveal that I told Jose to take him to Manchester United,” Kamara said. “Jose said: ‘These lot (Glazer family) won’t give me the money for him.’ Yeah, and he went to Liverpool.”
Charlie Austin has also spoken in the past of United’s interest in the defender but the English striker told talkSport that the Red Devils signed Lindelof instead.
“I remember at the back end of his Southampton career, we were sitting on the bench together at Chelsea away. I said to him ‘come on Virgil what’s going on, surely Manchester United must have been in for you?’, Austin said.
“They’re a massive club in England. He said ‘do you know what Chaz, in the summer it was between me and Lindelof, and they went for Lindelof’. I was gobsmacked.”
Then, even later, the Daily Mail reported Ed Woodward eventually enquired with Southampton over signing Virgil van Dijk – only to be told he was already undergoing a medical with Liverpool. It was too late.
Things could have been so different for the Red Devils
Had United signed Van Dijk in the summer of 2017, you wonder how close the Red Devils would have been to the eventual champions Manchester City.
Mourinho’s side finished 19 points behind City who finished on 100 points in the 2017/2018 season but surely the race for the title would have been a lot closer.
Van Dijk would have solved United’s defensive issues for a long time and he would still be the undisputed first choice for the Red Devils.
It’s yet another sliding doors moment for United and it’s hardly surprising that the Glazer family’s reluctance to spend scuppered a deal of this magnitude – but it may be Jose Mourinho who harbours the biggest regrets.
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