Mourinho at war with everyone

Jose Mourinho already knows how this will ultimately play out. So does everybody else.

The writing is firmly on the wall at Manchester United for him, mainly because he put it there.

Barring an uncharacteristic change of heart, there is no going back now for Mourinho. Battle lines have again been drawn between himself and the rest of football; everyone is the enemy.

United have already descended into the chaos which heralded a beginning of the end for the self-styled Special One twice before at Chelsea, either side of a spell with Real Madrid.

Predictable complaints about a lack of transfer activity which he took from Stamford Bridge to the Bernabeu, and back, are now reverberating around Old Trafford's corridors of power.

Unlike in previous years, however, there is no crowning glory from which Mourinho can plummet.

He is not presiding over a team of newly crowned champions, nor is there anything tangible on which he can at least cling to after United ended last season devoid of silverware and 19 points behind Manchester City, closer to fifth-placed Arsenal than Pep Guardiola's side.

It is no longer at the Etihad Stadium where Manchester's "noisy neighbours" are now residing. Sir Alex Ferguson once mused that City were nothing more than "a small club, with a small mentality" whose sole focus was fixating on their closest contemporaries. Sound familiar?

Mourinho's obsession with Liverpool "buying everything and everybody", rather than that of United's cross-city rivals, is nothing new but the rhetoric is as self-inflicted as it is needless.

Sometimes, Ferguson once claimed, all you can do with a noisy neighbour is put on your television and turn it up a little louder.

United's trouble is they have not appeared entirely willing to practise what their legendary manager once preached when it comes to Mourinho.

They may have a point; he has spent to the tune of £302 million (S$534.5m) net, yet is on the hunt for a third centre-back in as many summers despite having five already at his disposal.

Any attempts to pacify him at this late stage are set to prove futile, even though Mourinho has not enjoyed a greater autonomy than what is currently on offer to him with the Red Devils.

Beyond the current war of attrition with the United boardroom, which is unlikely to end even if one of Jerome Boateng, Harry Maguire or Toby Alderweireld finds himself in United colours before tomorrow's transfer deadline, Mourinho has reverted to type in other areas.

Publicly castigating several of his charges with Anthony Martial and Antonio Valencia firmly in the firing line, lends itself to the feuding which saw Cristiano Ronaldo and Iker Casillas ostracised at Real and Eden Hazard among several Chelsea players accused of treachery.

United's pre-season campaign became little more than a glorified media training exercise for Mourinho.

Half-strength sides playing in half-empty stadiums only sought to benefit the fine-tuning of his post-match diatribes far more than his players' match fitness or self-confidence.

An EPL curtain-raiser with Leicester City on Saturday morning (Singapore time) will only bring more of the same from their manager; more complaints, more blame-shifting and the continuation of a brand of football which can only be described as joyless at best.

The Portuguese coach entering a managerial endgame is dangerous for all concerned.

Expectations of United mounting a serious title challenge to rival City have already gone south in the face of his summer meltdown. It will most likely not end there, either.

Warnings of a "difficult season" ahead afford Mourinho a convenient get-out when the chips eventually fall, probably sometime close to Christmas based on previous evidence.

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MANCHESTER UNITED

Finished last season: 2nd

Nickname: The Red Devils

Manager: Jose Mourinho

Key player: David de Gea

Transfers in: Fred (Shakhtar Donetsk, £52m), Diogo Dalot (FC Porto, £19m), Lee Grant (Stoke City, £1.5m)

Transfers out: Daley Blind (Ajax, £14.1m), Sam Johnstone (West Brom, £6.5m), Axel Tuanzebe (Aston Villa, loan), Cameron Borthwick-Jackson (Scunthorpe United, loan), Dean Henderson (Sheffield Utd, loan)

SQUAD

Goalkeepers: David de Gea, Sergio Romero, Joel Pereira, Lee Grant

Defenders: Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo, Chris Smalling, Ashley Young, Luke Shaw, Antonio Valencia, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Matteo Darmian, Diogo Dalot

Midfielders: Paul Pogba, Fred, Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata, Marouane Fellaini, Ander Herrera, Nemanja Matic, Scott McTominay, Andreas Pereira

Forwards: Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial