Jose Mourinho confirmed: Now Manchester United need Zlatan Ibrahimovic to make it a box-office hit

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John Dillon27 May 2016

Jose Mourinho will be taking a leaf from Sir Alex Ferguson's play-book if he makes Zlatan Ibrahimovic one of his first signings at Manchester United.

Ferguson wasn't averse to pulling rabbits out of hats and making surprise deals for big names heading towards the end of their careers.

Any move for 34-year-old Ibra won't be a surprise now, of course. And given his huge personality and the level of his celebrity in the game, there is corporate marketing and social media gold to be mined here by the club as well as the last vestiges of his extra-ordinary talent.

Still, in plain old-fashioned football terms, the general theory is the same as that put to work by Ferguson.

In this respect, Henrik Larsson, Ibrahimovich's fellow Swedish striker, springs to mind. He is still fondly recalled by United's supporters even though the former Celtic and Barcelona forward played only 13 times during a loan spell from Helsinborg between January and March 2007, scoring three goals.

Fergie clearly thought he had done some nifty work back then, saying: "Henrik has been fantastic for us. Everything he has done has been excellent."

Laurent Blanc - Ibra's manager at Paris St Germain - was another major name given a swan-song by Ferguson when he signed the Frenchman at the age of 35 in 2001. After a troubled start, the elegant French defender nick-named "Le President," helped United lift the title in 2003 and then retired from playing after playing 48 times for United.

Star man: Swede would add extra glamour at Old Trafford Photo: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty
FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

Then, in 2009, Ferguson did another conjuring act when he landed Michael Owen on a free transfer. This caused a huge stir at the time, the move was not a huge success. He scored just five times in three years and 31 appearances. But he ensured himself a line in United's folklore when he scored the winner in a memorable 4-3 derby win against Manchester City - six minutes into added time.

All three signings showed Ferguson at work with his pragmatic hat on. Football management used to be like that. It still is down the ladder and outside of the elite. But now we are in the era when the appointment of a new boss for the biggest club in the land gets held up by the issue of who owns his image rights.

This is a tipping point which tells us that the massive spin-off industry of sponsorship, branding, merchandising and corporate attachment to the big clubs' names is now as important - if not more so - than the actual kicking around of the ball itself. As would be the signing of Ibrahimovich, although there will surely be some hugely enjoyable fireworks and some stunning goals if the Taekwondo Swede comes to town.

Do you imagine, though, that a desire to restore the traditions of United's cavalier style of play and a wish to promote young talent have been at the top of the priority list behind the change-over at the top in Manchester?

No, Mourinho's arrival as Louis van Gaal's replacement and the suggestion that he will attempt to land the brilliant self-publicist Ibrahimovich are as much about the owners' relentless drive to squeeze every last drop of commercial income out of United's name as it is about what happens on the pitch.

This is all about getting them back into the Champions League for commercial reasons, winning the title and restoring some handsome, electric, controversial box-office swagger to the club in order to keep the corporate business churning - especially with Pep Guardiola heading into town with City soon, too.

Just as Guardiola's appointment is about promoting City and Abu Dhabi's world-wide commercial machine as well as his reputation and achievements as a coach.

Of course, success on the field translates into profit off it. And both Mourinho's name and that of Ibra go hand in hand with that elusive quality. Don't imagine that the marketability of both men impinges on the fact they are deadly serious football men, even if they symbolise its massive corporate ground-shift.

None of this burgeoning corporate activity could happen without the football "product" at its core, either.

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And business is business, which is why all the big clubs are now driven by the same motives as the Glazers who, by the way, have been quite brilliant at this from a purely business perspective.

Still, the brazen parading of these huge changes in the game must stick painfully in the craw of all those supporters whose love of the game for itself and their passion and devotion to their teams is being rapaciously churned and milked so relentlessly.

The sport they follow is now being replaced by a heavily-branded real life version of PlayStation. And nobody even bothers to pretend otherwise now.

That is why Ibrahimovich makes so many outrageous boasts about himself. Of course, he is an immense player and some of his sound-bites are tongue-in-cheek.

But they've also had the effect of turning him into a social media magnet for millions and millions of football "customers" across the game's new global territories. You could almost imagine there was a strategy at work...

Meanwhile, The Glazers won't be worried about what tactics achieve their financial aims. They just want it to happen, which is fair enough because they have never professed to be in love with the game.

As if Mourinho would accept being told from above how to play, anyway.

His reputation for relentlessly dour football is unfair. His Real Madrid side scored 121 times while winning La Liga in 2011-12, for example.

But he is a pragmatic tactician and he sets out first and foremost to win. For one prime example of that, there was his trip to Old Trafford in the first Premier League game of his second spell at Chelsea in August 2013. Mourinho played without a striker and pulled of the first goalless draw in 77 league matches at the stadium, spoiling David Moyes' first big date in charge of United in the process.

Mourinho is not daft and he'll know all about what United stand for in the game. But he didn't get where he is today by abandoning his beliefs and principles about how to achieve success. It will be his way at Old Trafford, not the United way.

Anything else wouldn't suit his image, would it?

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