Mourinho camp confident of United deal

Manchester United are now widely expected to appoint Jose Mourinho as manager of the club by this summer at the latest, with an early appointment possible should Louis van Gaal oversee an even more dramatic loss of form.
In the last couple of days, reports have come from Italy and Spain claiming that United and Mourinho already have in place an agreement for him to take over from Van Gaal this summer. It is believed that these reports may be sourced from Mourinho’s camp in order to increase the pressure to conclude a potential deal. However, it now understood that a source close to Jorge Mendes, Mourinho’s agent, is confident that Mourinho will indeed take over at Manchester United.
This is a serious change at United compared to the Christmas period, when it appeared that the club were at loggerheads over any potential managerial change. There were a number of conflicting interests which prevented any quick change at Old Trafford as Van Gaal was in the middle of his worst run of results in England yet. It is believed that Van Gaal made an offer to resign at this time (and then again in January), as he acknowledged that he no longer had faith in his ability to turn the club around. He essentially admitted to the press that he had no idea how things could improve while he was manager, and carried himself with an corresponding fatalist air.
While it was expected that Van Gaal would not offer a straight resignation, and would require some kind of negotiated pay-off, Edward Woodward persuaded Van Gaal to stay on as manager. It is not because Woodward believed his appointed manager to be the ‘genius’ he described him as in the press in late 2015, but because he realised that any failure would see his role at the club under the spotlight. Woodward, as well as Alex Ferguson, had been keen to appoint David Moyes after Ferguson’s retirement, and a second successive managerial failure would have left Woodward exposed to the scrutiny of the Glazer family, Manchester United’s owners. At a time when the owners are asking for 15% cuts to be made across all non-first team departments, it would not be an opportune time for Woodward to have his value for money appraised.