Jose Mourinho may be coming back to the English Premier League after less than a season away. According to a report in the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Mourinho has signed a pre-contract with Manchester United. This agreement requires United to pay the former Chelsea manager $21.6 million if the club does not hire him for the 2016-2017 season. Such stringent terms — if the report is correct — should guarantee that current United Manager Louis van Gaal will be replaced by Mourinho at the end of the season.
The Manchester United side that Mourinho will take over is a confounding one. Despite a wage bill among the highest in the league, the Red Devils are likely headed for a finish outside the Champions League places. Those wages have bought only a sixth- and a fourth-place finish in the last two seasons as well. Manchester United surely has the resources to compete regularly at the top of both the Premier League and the Champions League. In the last few years, the Manchester giants have done neither.
This is particularly galling for United fans because they had become used to the team not merely performing at a level that befits its economic power but consistently overachieving those expectations.
The following graphic shows clubs’ Premier League points totals and wage bills, adjusted for inflation. Under Alex Ferguson, Manchester United was dominant in economic and soccer terms. van Gaal and David Moyes were not only unable to replicate his results, but could not even get the club to perform up to the level of its wage bill.