John Barrett: Jose Mourinho plays no part in the Manchester United blame game

WE all know that Jose Mourinho is the master of manipulation. But this season he has excelled himself.

Somehow he’s got everyone feeling sorry for his poor, exhausted, unlucky, injury-riddled £450m Manchester United team.

If they miss out on the top four, it’s because they’ve come up against poor referees, bus-parking defences and incredible goalkeepers or have been forced to play nine games in 30 days with no players.

He’s managed to sell the idea that qualifying for the Champions League via the Europa League is much better anyway, despite always previously expressing near contempt for the competition.

When he arrived at Chelsea second time around, the club had just won it under Rafa Benitez and Mourinho said: “I don’t want to win the Europa League. It would be a big disappointment for me.”

When he inherited a spot in the tournament from Louis van Gaal he said: “It is not a competition that I want, Manchester United wants or the players want.”

Now he’s talking about how great it would be to become the first United manager to win the trophy.

Mourinho has convinced everyone that finishing fifth under him is better than finishing fifth under Van Gaal because he’s had more problems with fixture congestion and injuries than the Dutchman had.

Yet van Gaal had 59 games last season, just four fewer than Mourinho if he makes it to Stockholm.

Mourinho had seven players injured recently but conveniently forgets that van Gaal had 14 players unavailable in the February of his last season.

The Portuguese laments that having to play nine games in April is “not human”, even though it’s the same number as Europa League semi opponents Celta Vigo, as well as Champions League semi-finalists Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Monaco.

It’s true that United could play 14 games more than Chelsea. But it’s hard to argue that cost them a title challenge as they were effectively out of contention by October after winning just five of their first 14 games.

Pep Guardiola has accepted that his first season at Manchester City has been a failure and has confronted his shortcomings by saying: “I must get better”.

Typically, Mourinho doesn’t question his own contribution, preferring to blast some of his players for a lack of commitment and tell everyone he had to re-educate his squad after van Gaal’s negativity.

It’s classic Mourinho blame-shifting. Nothing to do with me, Guv. I’m just the £14m-a-year manager.

TWENTY years ago today, Rangers equalled Celtic’s nine-in-a-row title record.

Skipper Richard Gough, wearing his club blazer and flannels as he was injutred, tried in vain to hold back tears of joy as he was presented with the trophy after a 1-0 win at Tannadice.

Several other first-teamers, including Andy Goram, Jorg Albertz, Stuart McCall, Ally McCoist and Ian Ferguson, were also not fit to play Dundee United that night.

It was well after 11pm when the ecstatic Rangers party left Dundee for Ibrox and an all-night celebration.

Yet not long afterwards those tears for success turned into tears for failure.

Three months into the new season, manager Walter Smith announced to shareholders at Rangers’ AGM he was standing down at the end of the season after 12 years at the club.

His side had failed to reach the group stages of the Champions League, falling to Gothenburg in a qualifying round. They were then eliminated from the UEFA Cup by Strasbourg at the first hurdle.

The pressure was suddenly on as the AGM approached.

It was chairman David Murray the fans were after, though, and Smith’s resignation statement took the shareholders by complete surprise.

Despite European failure, Rangers had a considerably stronger squad than the previous term when they equalled the great Jock Stein’s record at Celtic.

Rangers had spent £15-million strengthening that summer, including the signings of Lorenzo Amoruso, Marco Negri and Sergio Porrini.

In my opinion, they blew a fabulous opportunity to make it 10-in-a-row when Smith announced his intentions with so much of the season remaining.

No-one will ever be able to prove it, but it certainly appeared as if Rangers’ players lost their way, if not exactly downing tools.

They ended the campaign without a trophy for the first time in 12 seasons.

At that AGM, Murray had said far too much work had fallen to Smith, it was unrealistic to expect so much from one person and that Smith badly needed a break.

He also announced Rangers were looking for a coach as opposed to a manager to succeed Smith, pointing out that the football side and business side of a club Rangers’ size required more than one person in charge.

Yet Smith’s replacement Dick Advocaat assumed even more responsibility.

Many felt Smith sacrificed himself to take pressure off Murray, something he has always denied.

But he didn’t take much of a rest.

Exactly a month after defeat to Hearts in the Scottish Cup final, Smith accepted Everton’s offer to become manager at Goodison!