All chips on red: Why Mourinho's Europa League gamble has to pay off

Jose Mourinho is a master of deflecting attention from his side's failings. With each limp home draw this season, the Portuguese tore into match officials, at those who assemble the fixture list, or Luke Shaw, shifting the spotlight from what was a squad assembled at great expense, but to little avail on the domestic scene.

But if Manchester United doesn't beat Ajax on Wednesday, Mourinho will be caught centre-stage with his pants down, getting pelted at all angles.

For the humbling of one of the most egotistical managers in the modern game, Old Trafford is a peculiar setting. There is a bottomless pot of cash despite the Glazer family's sticky mitts, and an apparently reeling academy system is still producing players like Marcus Rashford and Timothy Fosu-Mensah. And, of course, there is the name of Manchester United: this is one of the biggest jobs in world football.

Mourinho has conversely changed tact from his old cocksure self. He once derided the predecessor of his second stint at Chelsea, Rafa Benitez, for celebrating the Europa League title, but not even four years later Mourinho has been resting players for that second-tier competition's final against Peter Bosz's Babes.

"In this moment the Premier League for us is just matches we didn't want to play," he said after May 14's defeat at Tottenham Hotspur.

Sunday's season-concluding 2-0 win over Crystal Palace featured three debutants for United, including Angel Gomes, who was born in 2000.

When the front cover of popular fanzine United We Stand went to the printers in late March, it depicted Mourinho suited up as a rabbit and pondering which basket he should put his eggs in. The Europa League hamper has been close to overflowing since, and United could crack.

(Photo courtesy: @UWSmag)

The implications of failing to overcome Ajax's exciting, youthful charges should not only lead to frantic questions from the boardroom over Mourinho's role but, after emphatically plummeting last season at Chelsea, could also prove fatal to his career.

United would miss out on around £50 million with defeat in Stockholm, according to BBC Sport's Simon Stone. A campaign without Champions League football would mean up to £30 million lost in revenue, and a further £21 million would have to be paid out to Adidas for breaching a clause in its £750-million sponsorship contract after failing to reach the competition in back-to-back seasons.

Not only would the lack of exposure and income hurt United's long-term aim to reestablish itself among the European elite, it would immediately shroud rumoured pursuits for Real Madrid's James Rodriguez, Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann, and Torino marksman Andrea Belotti in doubt. Could United legitimise more great expenditure when clubs like Kazakhstan's FC Ordabasy Shymkent and FC Shakhtyor Soligorsk of Belarus potentially lay in wait in the Europa League? Would players want to move to a team that can no longer promise Champions League qualification the following season?

The monetary implications are bad enough for a club which continues to hemorrhage cash to the deceased Malcolm Glazer's children - £33 million in the last two years, reports the Guardian's David Conn and Jamie Jackson - but when sitting down for a performance review with the United hierarchy, Mourinho can't be confident of a glowing report.

While the size of Paul Pogba's fee and the oddities of the deal that are under investigation from FIFA are the fault of executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, Mourinho's long-running inability to deploy the Frenchman in a position that suits him - perhaps on the left of a midfield three, where he blossomed at Juventus - is not a good reflection on his tactical expertise. Elsewhere, Shaw, Phil Jones, and Chris Smalling have been alienated in an era where Englishmen are a precious commodity due to the Premier League's homegrown player rules. Rashford and Anthony Martial in particular have shown scant signs of improvement. The gifted Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been underused.

After mocking his managerial contemporaries before this term kicked off for not declaring themselves in a Premier League title race and proclaiming his own candidacy, Mourinho and United limped to a woeful sixth place. Under Louis van Gaal last season, the Red Devils finished 15 points behind champion Leicester City. In 2016-17, Chelsea finished 24 points above United.

The League Cup was hoisted in February, but that would've been last priority out of the four honours United was competing for in 2016-17. For the future of the club, and Mourinho's own cherished reputation, United simply has to beat Ajax in Wednesday's Europa League showpiece.