After a summer spent continually lamenting his lot at Manchester United, Jose Mourinho was relatively chipper in his post-match interview with Sky Sports. Yet, despite a career in football management that has largely epitomised the 'my way or the highway' school of thought, the Portuguese is convinced the game is - if not quite gone - drastically changing.
Seeing his side pick up an important 2-1 opening day win against an impressive Leicester City side, Mourinho was quick to praise everyone from Paul Pogba to Luke Shaw; congratulating them on giving what they could to the cause, for as long as they could.
However, when Geoff Shreeves probed him for information regarding Manchester United's lack of activity in the transfer window, Mourinho described a footballing landscape that is increasingly hostile toward the manager who knows what he wants, and gets it:
I had my plans, and I had my plans for many months, and I find myself in the beginning of the Premier League with the market closed, and I'm in a situation that I thought was not going to be the situation I would be in.
But this is the last time I speak about it. ... Over, it's finished, the market is closed.
When questioned about the plans he put forth to Ed Woodward, and why they were ultimately rebuffed, Mourinho was almost acquiescent:
That's football, that's football management, and I think football is changing and probably football managers should be called head coaches.
We have big and multi-functional coaching staffs, and I think we are more the head coach than the manager. That's the way I think football is going.
