This season represented quite an important juncture for both Wayne Rooney and Jose Mourinho as the pair were finally united at Old Trafford. After previously trying to bring one of the most talked about English footballers of all time to both Chelsea and Real Madrid over the course his career, the Portuguese was finally handed his man.
Years ago, the notion of seeing the pair work together would pretty much guarantee success in the Premier League, with two biggest icons of the modern footballing era in this country enjoying so much of it throughout the mid-2000s. Still, events in both of their careers had seen their previously sky-high stock drop rather dramatically.
Mourinho’s Chelsea debacle had seen doubts cast over his ability to keep up with the ever-changing world of football. Had the Real Madrid experience ruined him? At times last season, it looked like it had.
Having seemingly lost the dressing room at Stamford Bridge last year, the 54-year-old was looking increasingly sour and the cocky charm that made him such an interesting, larger-than-life, character when he first arrived on these shores over a decade ago had soured into a toxic venom he appeared to spit with every passing press-conference.
Rooney, meanwhile, has been a burden for both club and country over the past 18 months or so. His labouring performances for England and United, either in central midfield or more attacking berths, were so often discussed in almost every round-up of weekend action for what seemed like an age.
So this version of a man who once captured the hearts and the imaginations of the footballing world was far from the one Mourinho had been desperate to work with. However, despite the fact they’re unlikely to win a league title together, Rooney has helped Jose in a way few could have imagined.
Mourinho’s delicate handling of a situation that had dragged for over a year has gone some way into eradicating the fears he’d lost his touch with man management. There have been no public outbursts from the Rooney camp, even though he is quite clearly no longer a part of the first-team plans. Taking him out of the firing line, peppering the 31-year-old into the starting XI has afforded him some much-needed respite.
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It’s a set of circumstances that could have so easily turned into a saga of the sourest nature, as it had threatened to twice even during Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign in charge at Old Trafford. Granted, the level of Rooney’s performances are entirely different to what they were back then, though a figure of such magnitude edging closer to a departure is a delicate situation nonetheless.
Where David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and even Roy Hodgson fed him to the lions as his powers were on the wane, Mourinho acted decisively and chose to remove him with little fuss. For a player not always universally loved by a support at a club where he’s enjoyed so much success with over the past 13 years, there now at least appears to be a reasonably good feeling towards him.
His figure, whether it be through his own actions or not, has loomed large over all but one of the previous managers to have worked with him. Identifying that, Mourinho’s entirely respectful praise of his skipper while dropping him has helped lift the club as a whole.
When he broke the club’s goalscoring record, his legendary strike against Stoke City did not come amid a torrent of abuse and a myriad of media questions about his ability to perform at the highest level. Instead, it can be celebrated for what it was – both a vitally important goal and a wonderful example of the technical ability he still has on the ball.
The closing stages of Rooney’s United career can now be enjoyed by all involved, rather than endured by those so quick to abuse him any chance they get. No longer a burden on a stuttering team, he is now afforded the grandeur of a star on the wane. For that, he should thank Mourinho.
But this works both ways, too. For helping to prove he hasn’t lost his way with managing players on a man-to-man basis, Jose should be thanking Rooney.
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