Manchester: The walk was strong. Jose Mourinho, shoulders back, chest out, expensive black overcoat zipped up to his chin, entered the arena with a swagger and left it looking like a proper Manchester United manager again, his name ringing around a jubilant Old Trafford.
He had been a man determined to portray an image of strength and confidence at the start of the evening; a manager emerging from the darkness of the tunnel with a sense of poise and purpose.
If he is going to be forced out of Old Trafford this week, as some headlines suggested on Friday night, despite the strong denials that followed, the Portuguese was going to do so with his head held high. There was something else, though, a glimpse of the emotions behind the act, a hint of vulnerability in the way Mourinho started to glance sideways into the stands as he walked towards his dugout. On more than one occasion he held the gaze of a supporter who had cheered or clapped him. There was even a smile, a nervous, thank you sort of look.
Mourinho admitted he needed an unofficial ‘vote of confidence’ from a board member, believed to be executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, before the game to know he could discount a newspaper report that he would be sacked this weekend, regardless of the result against Premier League strugglers Newcastle.
“The ones that read the papers, that are connected with social media, they thought maybe I had gone,” said Mourinho.
“If I hadn’t had an SMS from my board not to read (the papers) I would have been convinced too,” he added.
You cannot hide as a manager under pressure, you cannot show weakness, not in the dressing room, not on the touchline, but Mourinho is human not machine. He could not hide the tension. He knows what is at stake. Lose his job at Manchester United and he may never get another like it again. Reputation tarnished, armour penetrated, fail at Old Trafford and Mourinho will look like damaged goods. There will be other opportunities, of course, but perhaps not one as big or glamorous as this again. That thought will haunt him, no matter how much he pretends otherwise.
If this was supposedly Mourinho’s swansong, his final act as Manchester United manager, it started with cowardice and ended in heroism. Booed off at half-time, his team left the pitch to a standing ovation, completing a stunning second half comeback to claim all three points. If these players no longer want to play for such an abrasive and confrontational manager, they have a funny way of showing it.
Sour, bitter and about as easy to stomach as raw chicken, nothing Mourinho has done this season has been easy to swallow. Even those who have remained generally supportive, clinging on to the belief he remains the right man, even while performances and results have deteriorated, find much of what he has done unpalatable.
The public criticism of players, the strange formation changes, the one-paced football, the constant moaning, whinging and whining that began on the club’s summer tour of the USA and has flared up, intermittently, ever since. He has not looked happy for months, so why should the people who employ him on wages of 15m pounds a year be happy for him to carry on when form fluctuates as wildly as this?
What Mourinho needed was a performance, something for everyone at the club to rally around. A victory to calm things down, three points to buy him and his players some time to compose themselves.
He needed a show of defiance. What he got in the first half was a surrender, two goals down inside 10 minutes against a team that had scored four goals in the Premier League in seven games before this.
Mourinho tried to keep his composure, he clapped and encouraged. He twirled his hands around trying to get heads up and spirits raised. All the while he was serenaded with chants telling him he would be sacked in the morning from the jubilant Newcastle supporters to his right, followed by a reminder he is not special anymore.
The home fans tried to respond, they did not turn, they did not jeer or boo, but the songs in support of the manager, were drowned out by the noise coming from the away end. Manchester United out-played and out sung by a team without a win all season.
Mourinho made a change, a bold one too, after just 19 minutes, sending on Juan Mata for Eric Bailly. Manchester United remained one dimensional; abject. There was no spark, no imagination and very little fight. What happened next did not seem possible.
At half time, with his team trailing 2-0 to a Newcastle side without a win all season, Mourinho began to jog down the touchline, picking up the pace in a race to salvage something, even if was just pride. What followed was remarkable, a fightback so unexpectedly impressive that it deserves to sit alongside any of the famous ones of old.
Mourinho did not celebrate the winning goal. Hands shoved firmly in his pockets, he looked at the ground in front of him while everyone else celebrated deliriously. The Portuguese might just have got things back under control, both in himself and the team he leads.
