Jose Mourinho was the double Champions League winner, the eight-time semi-finalist, voicing his disdain for his favourite tournament’s uglier sibling.
“It [the Europa League] is not a competition that Manchester United wants,” he said in September. “It is not one I want or the players but it is a competition where we are and that is the reality.”
Seven months on, Mourinho has a different reality. He has embraced the Europa League. Not out of love, but pragmatism. Yet Mourinho always was the arch-pragmatist. Everything represents a means to an end. The Europa League provides a return to the Champions League — not the one Mourinho originally envisaged, but one which reflects shifting realities at Old Trafford.
If Sunday’s victory over Chelsea had the hallmarks of some of the great Mourinho wins — tactical brilliance, defensive resilience, collective excellence — the circumstances did not. When the Portuguese indicated his dislike for the Europa League, he may have anticipated an April reunion would have come with United in the commanding position in the title race and Chelsea an outside bet for the top four. Instead, the opposite applied.
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When United kicked off last Sunday, the notion was that Mourinho had prioritised the Europa League. The omissions of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were cast in another light 90 minutes later, but it marked a role reversal nonetheless.
When their continental campaign began with a 1-0 loss to Feyenoord, it was understood and understandable that United would use the Europa League to give opportunities to fringe figures. Defeats in their first two away games — neither of which Ibrahimovic started — compelled Mourinho to take it more seriously, firstly out of fear of embarrassment and increasingly because United dropped off the Premier League pace. Hence the scenario whereby a seemingly stronger side appeared against Anderlecht than against Chelsea last week.
If the 1-1 result in Belgium had certain similarities with all too many domestic draws this season, with wastefulness leaving Mourinho frustrated, United’s fortunes at home in Europe have been dramatically different. They have won just 41 per cent of Premier League games at Old Trafford and 100 per cent in the Europa League. Three of the last four have been emphatic and if March’s 1-0 victory over Rostov was not, there was nonetheless a feeling of inevitability about progress.
That feeling has persisted about United’s European run ever since Mourinho abandoned his initial reservations. The Europa League feels a grind towards glory. This year’s edition is stripped of some of its intrigue. Twelve months ago, the quarter-finals featured the epic tie between Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund, while the holders Sevilla were threatened with elimination by Athletic Bilbao. In Villarreal and Shakhtar Donetsk, other potential candidates abounded.
The 2016-17 version seems watered down in comparison. United were propelled into the position of favourites long ago as other supposed candidates fell by the wayside. Yet while Mourinho has taken few precautions since his early experiments at squad rotation backfired, he realised that the Europa League, more than any other competition, is about navigating a path through to the last eight and then closing in on silverware.
If Mourinho’s threats to name weakened sides in England to concentrate on Europe now bear the look of a cunning attempt at distraction, he finds himself instead with a balancing act. Given his past, he can also appear both hypocritical and diminished.
“I don’t want to win the Europa League,” he said in 2013, in a jibe at Rafa Benitez, the man he replaced at Chelsea.
More pertinently, he does not want to be in it. But nor does he want to be out of it or back in it. This may be Mourinho’s most pragmatic trophy yet.
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