Disquieting news conferences are nothing new with Jose Mourinho. Even during his heyday with Porto, Chelsea and Inter, they were usually cold, beguiling encounters, a glance into the war room of a calculating general.
But where once there was intrigue, now there is bitterness and boredom. Mourinho s latest 20-minute diatribe in the United States came after weeks of frustration, in which he rattled off barbs at Liverpool, Anthony Martial, Paul Pogba, Antonio Valencia, young players and the transfer window, like some vitriolic Gatling gun with a stuck trigger.
You might have noticed the military theme by now. That s because Mourinho and Manchester United are gearing up for a fight: a fight to stay relevant in a modern gung-ho game as their rivals threaten to vanish over th…