Gary Lineker has claimed it was “inevitable” that Jose Mourinho would pay the price for the wretched run of results at Manchester United.
The high-profile pundit claimed United’s hierarchy had no choice but to give the Portugese the boot following a terrible start to the season in which the team had played “dour football” and the dressing room appeared split.
Citing the 19-point gap between leaders Liverpool and United in the Premier League table, Lineker pointed out on his personal Twitter account why Mourinho had to go.
With @ManUtd 19 points behind @LFC after 17 games, with the vast majority of players playing way below their best…and dour football to boot. Given Mourinho was allowed to spend hundreds of millions on those players the split seemed inevitable.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) December 18, 2018
OPINION
Lineker is spot on. United had to dismiss Mourinho, despite the eye-boggling cost of doing so, with reports suggesting it will cost £18million, equivalent to a year’s salary, to pay him off. For a club of United’s riches, as a result of the deals secured by the money-making factory Old Trafford has become, that is a painful amount, but not a sum they can’t easily swallow. Ed Woodward and the United board have acted to try and bring the team back into the reckoning for a top-four spot this season, something that looked impossible under Mourinho after they drifted 11 points behind Chelsea in fourth after their thoroughly deserved defeat to Liverpool at the weekend. The players are under-performing, the manager has lost the ability to seduce top performance after publicly slating most of them and the club appear divided from top to bottom. Not all of that is Mourinho’s fault, but he is the man who is responsible for the team’s results, and he had to get his marching orders.