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Man United fans want Jose Mourinho vs Pep Guadiola part 11

By Editor
03 February 2016   |   2:25 am
Ed Woodward is a top financier. ‘Straight out of the corporate cookie jar’ is how colleagues describe Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman. Now, he’s facing the business decision of his life; does he respond to Pep Guardiola’s arrival at Manchester City by producing his own big beast, Jose Mourinho, or stick to the United way and…
PHOTO: dailymail.co.uk

PHOTO: dailymail.co.uk

Ed Woodward is a top financier. ‘Straight out of the corporate cookie jar’ is how colleagues describe Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman.

Now, he’s facing the business decision of his life; does he respond to Pep Guardiola’s arrival at Manchester City by producing his own big beast, Jose Mourinho, or stick to the United way and give club legend Ryan Giggs the reins when Louis van Gaal goes.

There is one certainty – it is not an easy decision. Woodward will be fretting 24/7 over what to do. City’s hijacking of transfer deadline day by announcing Guardiola is a sign of things to come and for a global concern like United, it’s simply untenable to be considered less newsworthy than your rivals from across town.

City have upped the ante, so do United rip up their long-standing Giggs strategy and go for Mourinho, on the basis that if you can’t beat them, join them?

Though the final decision will rest with the Glazer family rather than Woodward, his input is extremely important. What to do next will be eating away at him.
On the face of it, there is only one figure who can match Guardiola for glamour, charisma and power. That’s Mourinho.

Their rivalry in Spain signalled the lowest point in relations between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

“He can have his Champions League outside the field. Fine.’ retorted Guardiola to Mourinho’s taunts.

The self-styled Special One also prodded Barca assistant-manager Tito Vilanova in the eye during one heated Clasico.

That kind of behaviour will make some United legends, Sir Bobby Charlton among them, queasy. But others will like the idea of getting under City’s skin, up to the point of physical confrontations, of course.

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