Is Jose Mourinho The Right Heir To Sir Alex Ferguson’s Throne?

It is easy to say that Mauricio Pochettino and Jose Mourinho meet on Sunday as opposites. The Argentine is on course for the highest finish of his coaching career, the Portuguese the lowest. Yet if they are overachiever and underachiever in the Premier League, the Tottenham manager has never won a trophy and his Manchester United counterpart is pursuing a second of this spring alone.

They are competing at White Hart Lane for three points, though Mourinho is likely to field a weakened team and it could be an unfair contest, but it is part of a broader battle for an unofficial title: which is Sir Alex Ferguson’s truest heir?

In one respect, it is obvious. While Pochettino brims with potential, Mourinho has the pedigree of securing silverware. He rules the roost at Old Trafford, benefiting from the vast commercial income that is a product of Ferguson’s success and managing a group of the Scot’s old players. Should he sell Wayne Rooney in the summer, he will pursue the path the older man probably would have followed had he not retired in 2013. Under Mourinho’s guise, Ferguson has started travelling with the team to away games again. United’s most successful manager has been publicly supportive of the current incumbent. There were reports that the 75-year-old has privately admitted he was wrong not to anoint Mourinho his successor in 2013.

But instead David Moyes, not Mourinho, was Ferguson’s Chosen One. Now the seal of approval has been bestowed on Pochettino. He met Ferguson for lunch last spring, describing it as “a dream come true.” They are in contact and exchange texts. Gary Neville, Ferguson’s former captain, has long been a vocal admirer of the Argentine. It has felt he was speaking with his master’s voice.

Pochettino, in turn, has sought to portray himself as the inheritor of Ferguson’s mantle. He spoke last month of trying to follow in his footsteps. “For me the best example in football in many years was Manchester United with Sir Alex Ferguson and what he created with young talent from the academy or from England,” he said.

Youth and an attacking approach, exponential but organic improvement, a certain fearlessness: Ferguson would surely recognise these characteristics. Pochettino’s protégés have certain common denominators with Fergie’s fledglings. Both surprised outsiders with the speed of their evolution, countering the notion that big spending is pivotal to progress. Like Ferguson, Pochettino has been unafraid to exile those who crossed him. He can be a father figure, certainly according to Victor Wanyama, but he is also a disciplinarian. Admittedly, Ferguson never adopted the 3-4-2-1 system Pochettino has used so productively, but there are reasons to argue that Tottenham are the team who most resemble the Scot’s United sides. While Mourinho cites Marcus Rashford’s regular involvement — 1,671 Premier League minutes and counting — to argue he promotes emerging players, Ferguson’s ethos can seem more apparent at White Hart Lane.

A capacity to take a team onwards is Ferguson-esque. Tottenham have their biggest points tally of the Premier League era. They are on course for their highest finish and with their best defensive record. Ferguson ended his career with 22 consecutive top-three finishes. Pochettino is set for a second, whereas this could be United’s second-worst finish since 1991.

But it could also be the first year since 2009 when they win two major trophies. While Pochettino has been knocked out of two European competitions this season, Mourinho is doggedly pursuing continental silverware. He has already emulated Ferguson by reaching 10 European semifinals; lift the Europa League and he will draw level with a man two decades his senior on four major European trophies.

Yet his team are more pragmatic, dramatically outscored in a way Ferguson’s sides rarely were. He goes to White Hart Lane with the extraordinary record of never seeing his United find the net away from home against top-six opponents. It has brought damning comparisons with Ferguson, suggesting the old adventurer would never be that dull. But while Ferguson’s sides often had a counterattacking menace, they could be negative. They nearly always went to Anfield to play for a point, sometimes gaining more. They went to Barcelona in 2008 with a blanket defence and drew 0-0.

Much more than Pochettino, Mourinho uses interviews to unsettle opponents. He is the major exponent of Ferguson’s famous mind games. He has also stepped into his predecessor’s old role as the managerial Godfather, striking up strange friendships with Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis to appear the kingpin of the old guard.

Much like Ferguson, Mourinho seems to relish the status of being United manager whereas Pochettino has a lower-profile approach. They can wildly differ, but then United’s managerial decision last year seemed to involve four contrasting figures who each nonetheless had certain similarities with Ferguson. Louis van Gaal, like the Scot, won the Champions League in the 1990s. Ryan Giggs had a shared history, the fledgling who made 941 appearances for his mentor. Then there was Pochettino, touted for United, and Mourinho, the obvious, available option, the man with a philosophy Ferguson would recognise and the one with a medal collection even the Scot may envy. The Europa League could enable Mourinho to brand this season a success, but United may wish they could have appointed a hybrid of the two. Finding someone like that illustrates the scale of Ferguson’s achievements and the difficulties of following him.