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Jose Mourinho Holds Talks With Manchester United

By Gregory Wakeman
Published on: 14:15 PST, Feb 5, 2016

Louis Van Gaal might want to look away now, because reputable sources have insisted that Jose Mourinho has already held talks with Manchester United officials about taking over at Old Trafford from the Dutch coach.

The BBC has alleged that Manchester United and Jose Mourinho’s representatives sat down to discuss the possibility of the Portuguese coach replacing Louis Van Gaal at some point in the near future. Fifty-three-year-old Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea on December 17, despite leading them to the Premier League title just last season.

These discussions are still believed to be at a very early stage. However, Jose Mourinho is thought to be “increasingly hopeful” that he will ultimately replace Louis Van Gaal at Old Trafford. What will make the fact that Mourinho is inline to replace Van Gaal even more harder to swallow is that Mourinho used to work under Van Gaal at Barcelona.

However, there is no set date for when Mourinho will replace Van Gaal. In fact, no agreement between the two parties is even close to being reached and the negotiations are still at a very early stage.

It does appear as though the stage is being set for Mourinho to take over at Manchester United, though. While Louis Van Gaal’s contract at Old Trafford is only due to expire in the summer of 2017, it’s believed that the 64-year-old will actually leave Old Trafford a year earlier than scheduled. That will take place this summer.

Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho has made it known that he is very excited by the prospect of becoming Manchester United’s manager. It’s been speculated that he was approached to take over the managerial position at Roma, but decided to turn it down so that he was still free in case United sacked Van Gaal.

The decisions to approach Jose Mourinho was taken by Manchester United’s officials after their cross-city rivals Manchester City confirmed that Pep Guardiola, the current manager of Bayern Munich, would replace Manuel Pellegrini in the summer. Guardiola was very much in demand by a number of English clubs, after the Spaniard announced that he would be leaving Germany in the summer.

Manchester United, Chelsea, and even Arsenal were alleged to be considering offers for Pep, who is highly regarded in the world of soccer because of his exploits as Barcelona manager, where he won two Champions Leagues and three La Liga titles, playing an exciting, attacking brand of football.

Louis Van Gaal’s position at Manchester United has been increasingly under threat after a series of bad results. In fact, after the defeats by Stoke on December 26 and Southampton on January 23, it was widely reported that Van Gaal was on the brink of being sacked.

In fact, after the defeat at Stoke, during Manchester United’s game at Old Trafford against Chelsea, unofficial scarves with Jose Mourinho’s face were sold outside the ground.

While two victories against Derby and Stoke City have eased this pressure, Manchester United’s fans have hardly been impressed with Van Gaal’s languid style of play, as well as the fact that they are 10 points off the summit of the Premier League and five points adrift of the Champions League.

Last month there was even speculation that Jose Mourinho had written an extensive six-page letter to Manchester United explaining why he was perfectly suited to replace Louis Van Gaal in the Old Trafford hot seat. However, these were later dismissed by his agent as “absurd.” It now looks as though he won’t even need such a letter to get the position he so obviously craves.

[Image via Associated Press]

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