Is this why José Mourinho is a bad fit for Manchester United?

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Youth

Tyler Blackett, Paddy McNair, Reece James, Tom Thorpe, Regan Poole, James Weir, Saidy Janko, James Wilson, Jesse Lingard, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Donald Love, Joe Riley, Andreas Pereira, Marcus Rashford – quite a collection of talent.

That is a list of youngsters from Manchester United’s academy who have played competitive football under Van Gaal. Granted, some of those names will only be familiar to hard core statisticians, whilst others have appeared on the team sheet only sporadically, but the likes of Rashford and Lingard have made a real impact, developing relatively quickly into reliable members of the starting eleven.

If radio phone-ins and internet forums are anything to go by, even the most ardent adherents of the Van Gaal-out brigade begrudgingly admit that the Dutchman’s youth policy deserves praise. That should come as no surprise, since the romance of the Busby Babes and the Class of 92 is a key part of the mythology surrounding the United way.

So, will Mourinho live up to United fans’ expectations in this department? Again, the answer lays somewhere between ‘doubtful’ and ‘not a chance’.

During his fifteen years as a professional football manager, Mourinho has only given first team opportunities to twenty-three youth players, none of whom were able to nail down a regular starting berth. At Chelsea, where he spent a cumulative total of five years, he handed first team starts to a mere five academy products – Ruben Loftus, Nathan Ake, Sam Hutchinson, Andreas Christensen, and Lenny Pidgeley.

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What’s more, Mourinho has form when it comes to misjudging or ignoring the potential of young players. Romelu Lukaku, Kevin de Bruyne, and Ryan Bertrand were all deemed surplus to requirements at Chelsea and yet, it is arguable that all three would improve the current set-up at the club. The same can be said of a number of other youngsters he’s let go over the years.

José Mourinho’s reluctance to use the vast resources at his disposal can largely be put down to his innate caution, but it would be remiss of me not to raise the spectre of super-agent Jorge Mendes. Having access to such a large network of talented players has obviously been a boon for Mourinho, but it is worth pointing out that his close relationship with Mendes has probably contributed to his poor record when it comes to utilising and promoting youth players.

Indeed, the fact that The Guardian are predicting an influx of Mendes clients in the summer should give United fans more than pause for concern.