Jose Mourinho will become a specialist in failure if Manchester United lose the Europa League final against Ajax

It is easy to be curmudgeonly about what Jose Mourinho has achieved at Manchester United this season. 

With his constant whining, his relentless narcissism, his stream of excuses, his attacks on Luke Shaw — a player who nearly lost his career playing in United's colours — and his general lack of grace, he is not an easy manager to love.

Compare him with Antonio Conte, who has taken English football by storm this season, and he looks sour and stale. 

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Jose Mourinho has guided Manchester United into the final of this season's Europa League

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However, the Portuguese has spent much of the season trailing in Antonio Conte's w

The same if you put him next to Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp. His United team have lacked the energy and dynamism of the best teams. For a manager who has achieved so much, he once again has much to prove.

In many ways, United have stood still this season. Some might even say they have gone backwards. They are unlikely now to match the fourth place in the Premier League that Louis van Gaal led them to in his first season at Old Trafford. As things stand, they are struggling to equal the fifth place the doomed Dutchman achieved last season.

United's former captain, Roy Keane, said last week that United's position in the league, now 22 points behind leaders Chelsea, is 'embarrassing'. Mourinho's emphasis on defence made them difficult to beat, as a 25-game run without defeat attests, but it made them look ponderous and dull beside Chelsea and Spurs.

It is surprising that a manager of Mourinho's pedigree has not done better. It is not as if he has been short of cash. The Glazer family has already backed him generously. United's executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, has taken over from Peter Ridsdale as English football's undisputed Father Christmas. For references, ask agent Mino Raiola.

Mourinho spent £145 million on Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba last summer to bolster United's squad. The least that most United fans expected was a top-four finish. That Mourinho is struggling to deliver that has been a grave disappointment.

Chelsea's blue revolution: From a nutty breakfast in the mountains to the title, how the champions transformed from strugglers to winners

It wasn’t quite palpable discord but there was a degree of grumbling at the Falkensteiner Schlosshotel on the banks of the shimmering Worthersee in the Austrian Alps last July.

It wasn’t just the pre-match meals, although that was one issue of contention. When the Chelsea players first entered the dining room before the Rapid Vienna friendly match, some had walked out on seeing the array of nuts, dried fruit and snacks. 

It wasn’t a rebellion. They just assumed they were in the wrong room and went searching for their usual scrambled egg, pizza and sandwiches.

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Chelsea have come a long way from breakfast confusion in Austria to being English champions

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Thibaut Courtois says all the Chelsea players have had to work hard for Antonio Conte

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Midfielder Nemanja Matic says the Italian has made them work hard all season long

They were soon put right, but it wasn’t only the food. It was the intensity of the work. Not old-school running, but physical work with exercise balls and bands. Then came the video analysis. Everyone knows pre-season will be hard, but there was a level of intensity and then, later, tactical analysis which surprised even Chelsea players.

‘Obviously the impression in the beginning with the manager was that we were all going to do a lot of work,’ says Thibaut Courtois, and he stifles a chuckle. It is an impression which hasn’t really changed much. ‘He worked us hard,’ said Nemanja Matic. ‘Not only in Austria, all season!’

‘There are lot of video meetings, obviously the things that a football player doesn’t like too much,’ added Courtois. ‘Only physical work and tactical work, you prefer to play little games and have fun.’

Bear in mind these are players well versed in the ways of Jose Mourinho, who made his name on the basis of the detail of his preparation, analysis and his teams’ fitness. Yet almost all the Chelsea players have reported that manager Antonio Conte stepped it up to another level. Despite this, pre-season in Austria seemed an inauspicious start.