Jose Mourinho’s fiercest managerial rivalries have tended to be with those who, in one way or another, represent an opposite of him. Pep Guardiola is the purist and the professor, Arsene Wenger the austere idealist and Roberto Mancini the Italian icon. Rafa Benitez spoke with robotic repetitiveness. Claudio Ranieri seemed a happy-go-lucky nearly man.
None of those descriptions apply to the Manchester United manager. But if his enemies are often his antithesis, Mourinho faces another who qualifies for that category on Sunday. Like Manuel Pellegrini, one of the many predecessors or successors with whom Mourinho has feuded, Claude Puel projects an unremitting greyness.
Puel seems the anti-Mourinho. The EFL Cup final managers can both feel like showstoppers, but for very different reasons. Mourinho, even the slightly toned-down boss at Old Trafford, is eminently charismatic and invariably quotable, mixing forthright opinion and instructive insight with mischief-making and barely concealed jibes. If Mourinho can’t stop saying interesting things, it seems as though Puel can’t start. Not in English, anyway.
The French boss likened Nathan Redmond to Thierry Henry, another winger he converted to a striker, in the summer. It generated plenty of attention. Puel appeared to resolve not to make the same mistake again. His subsequent utterances have been eminently forgettable.
The presumption is that Puel possesses hidden depths; he has kept them well hidden during his time at Southampton and deterred many from searching for them. Much more is known of Mourinho, but he retains his capacity to intrigue. Mourinho’s delivery is not always as razor sharp as it was during his first spell at Chelsea, but he still has a magnetism to him. Puel seems to be a charisma vacuum. Perhaps he prefers the persona of the quiet man.
A dozen years ago, Mourinho was in the position that Puel is now, a foreigner managing in England for the first time. They approached it in different ways, one commanding centre stage and the other blending into the background.
The outsider-turned-establishment figure, Mourinho appears to identify more with Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis than Puel these days. As a former player of Wenger’s during his Monaco days, Puel is scarcely a natural ally, either.
Perhaps Mourinho had Puel in mind when, after beating Watford, he complained this was the most defensive Premier League ever and attributed it to an influx of foreign managers. United are only the division’s seventh-highest scorers, but Mourinho is trying to bracket himself with the adventurers. Puel, too, feels his side’s attacking efforts are not reflected in their goal tally. But a few weeks ago, Southampton were the second lowest scorers. The sense is his ideal scenario was the second leg of the EFL Cup semifinal, when Southampton did not need to score and defended brilliantly in a 1-0 win at Anfield. Albeit in a different situation, that gameplan may be replicated at Wembley.
Mourinho is mounting a four-pronged challenge, whereas Southampton’s season may end on Sunday. Mourinho admitted he “threw away” the FA Cup in 2005 — his first season in England — but has fielded stronger sides thereafter. Puel tossed Southampton’s chances away this year with the makeshift side he named to face Arsenal; they lost 5-0.
The budgets and ambitions of their respective employers are very different. So are the circumstances. Mourinho is seen as an upgrade on United’s two previous managers, the ill-fated duo of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal. Puel risks looking a downgrade on his upwardly mobile pair of predecessors, Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman. Indeed, one reason why some Southampton fans have not warmed to him is that he seems the opposite of the outspoken, charismatic Koeman.
With his eight top-four finishes in Ligue 1, Puel brings a promise of understated progress. Mourinho offers a likelihood of noisy achievement. Because if Puel has won plaudits, he has not won many prizes. His last honour came in 2000. Mourinho has 23 of varying significance since then.
Yet while a first major piece of silverware to accompany August’s Community Shield could kickstart a trophy-winning sequence for Manchester United, it would not be transformative in itself. Legendary status at Old Trafford is reserved for the two managerial knights, Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson. A first major trophy would be as many as the sacked Van Gaal and Tommy Docherty mustered, half as many as Ron Atkinson and still leave him behind Ernest Mangnall.
It would have an altogether greater effect for Puel. Matt Le Tissier, the man nicknamed “Le God” by Southampton supporters, said in his autobiography that Lawrie McMenemy was “almost a god” among Saints. In one sense, and while McMenemy’s overall feats on the south coast far outweigh those of Southampton’s current boss, winning would put Puel on a par with the only manager to secure major silverware for the club. It would certainly give him a distinction Pochettino and Koeman lacked. He is already Mourinho’s antithesis. He has a huge reward if he proves his nemesis.
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