“We knew exactly how to win,” said the United boss after an evening dripping with emotion on Wednesday, his side beating Ajax 2-0 in the Europa League final against the backdrop of Manchester’s pain following Monday’s terror attack.
And the man has a point. This is a club which for a quarter of a century went about sweeping practically everyone aside to win almost every trophy possible, but they have done just about everything but win since Sir Alex Ferguson hung up his stopwatch.
David Moyes was a rabbit caught in headlights, Louis van Gaal an old dog with no new tricks. United needed to find a way to get over the line once again, with Moyes’ single Community Shield win and Van Gaal’s FA Cup triumph small reward for supporters who had come to expect so much more. 
The club turned to Mourinho knowing he was the closest thing there was to a guarantee of some sort of success, even if he also ensured a bumpy ride along the way. His tactics are a stick to beat him with, but when he comes out on top he is never shy in hitting back.
“There are lots of poets in football,” he added on Wednesday when speaking to BT Sport . “The poets didn’t win many titles.”
Time and again during what has at times been a testing and tiresome first year in charge at the Theatre of Dreams he has questioned how the likes of Arsene Wenger, Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola get away with some things but he never can.
A trio of trophies are money in the bank to a United manager who few expect to suddenly have a team playing dazzling football. And with Antonio Conte alone having so far lifted a major title other than Mourinho it is hard to argue with the Portuguese’s assertion that it is the end goal which counts the most.
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