that's a good, valid point ryan. but you can't blame him for that. he's actually very good at turning a set of randomly gathered star players into a real team with a couple of smart changes. he knows every team needs a khedira or a motta. I'm not saying this as if he's the only one aware of this but there are so many dumb managers who always overlook this aspect of the game. it's much more critical than saying hey I want ronaldo to forward, buy me thiago silva for defence, let's get neuer for the goal. any manager can do that under a rich ownership. and I'm sure Mourinho can build a team from zero but being a very friendly figure to his teams, he doesn't seem to enjoy kicking players out just for the sake of making it a zero.
p.s. remember the shevchenko issue between him and abramovich as well. it's not that easy to work for the bosses like perez, roman, moratti. these guys never fully trust in the coaches. just a little conflict (be it transfers or the results) and bam you're sacked! whereas in clubs like ajax, bayern and barcelona the tradition of applying long term projects and certain football philosophy has always had the support of the board (time to see if united is another one).