Sir Dave Brailsford speaks on Man United issue that Jose Mourinho can’t fix

Sir Dave Brailsford has already detailed how detrimental ‘losing’ behaviours can be when running a top organisation like Manchester United.

Brailsford, 59, has already taken a leading role in INEOS‘ takeover of United’s sporting department following the announcement of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s 25 per cent stake in the club.

One of his key principles comes through ‘winning’ and ‘losing’ behaviours and he believes that any losing behaviours embedded in an organisation will ruin the winning ones.

“You could be doing all these winning behaviours, but just one or two of these losing behaviours, and it outweighed all these winning behaviours,” Brailsford explained in a recent Sky Sports documentary series, Secrets of Success.

“Moaning, for example. If I moan about everything and every time I come in it’s ‘Same old, same old, this that and the other’ – moaning is very much a losing behaviour,” added Brailsford.

“You can either moan about everything or you can take it on board and say I’m not going to do that, despite feeling disgruntled about something, I’m going to try to feel positive about it. For everyone winning or losing behaviour, there is the opposite.”

United have recently been linked with a shock move to resign Jose Mourinho after reports emerged stating that the Portuguese manager feels he has ‘unfinished business’ at the club.

Mourinho was sacked in December 2018 at Old Trafford and was replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjær. However, his return would bring in some of those ‘losing’ behaviours that Brailsford has detailed.

For everything great about Mourinho, he has often clashed with those inside a club, whether it be staff or players. That hasn’t seemed to change.

Before he was sacked from AS Roma last month, Mourinho called out former United defender Chris Smalling in an interview. The manager suggested the Englishman is not capable of playing through pain and that it was having an impact on the team.

“There are also regular people like us, who aren’t high-performance athletes, who have a greater pain threshold,” said Mourinho. “Maybe I can sleep fine with toothache, maybe you struggle. That’s how it is.

“Smalling isn’t capable of playing through pain. He holds something back. It’s really frustrating for me because his position – centre back – is where we’re most desperate for players.”

This is not the first time the former Chelsea manager has been perhaps too open in the media. His previous spats with Luke Shaw and Paul Pogba at United seemed to be the start of his downfall at the club.

With INEOS also aiming to have a trident with the manager, CEO and sporting director working together, it appears that they already know their answer if Mourinho comes knocking.