Publications
Partners
Cape Town - Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane says that the sacking of Jose Mourinho and hiring of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United taught him a valuable lesson.
After nearly three years at the Old Trafford, Mourinho was shockingly shown the door last December with fan favourite Solskjaer taking over on an interim basis.
The once prolific striker had such a huge influence from the start that he went on to break six Premier League records.
Soon after, United offered the 46-year-old a three-year contract in which he added Mike Phelan as his assistant with Michael Carrick, Kieran McKenna and Mark Dempsey as the first-team coaches.
He has since knocked up 55.2%-win average following 16 wins from 29 matches.
Meanwhile, Mourinho managed 144 games at United, winning 88 matches and has a win percentage of 58.3%.
In an interview with KickOff, Mosimane says that a manager or coach needs luck just as much as they need time to get things right at a club.
He feels that Mourinho should have been given more time especially with the cracks slowly beginning to show at United under Solskjaer’s regime.
"The Mourinho issue was a big lesson for me, where everybody said he is not the right one and then Solskjaer came on and got a few wins and then everybody says Mourinho is not the one," Mosimane said.
"And now Solskjaer is not winning as he is supposed to, so, do we say Mourinho should have been kept longer for the team to gel and keep going?
"That’s the lesson I learnt from the Man United story, that sometimes you jump the gun too early because Mourinho maybe needed time to get the team right.
"To be a good coach takes a lot. You need the support from the board, and you need the players to trust you. It’s a funny game and a difficult profession."
- Compiled by: Tashreeq Vardien
