Bastian Schweinsteiger, Jose Mourinho, and the Trouble with Nostalgia

The only thing Manchester United and Bayern Munich fans usually have in common is the color of their shirts, but something strange just happened. Jose Mourinho brought them together by offending them both.

The issue concerns Bastian Schweinsteiger, current Manchester United midfielder and former Bayern legend, and his purported unfair treatment at the hands of Mourinho, who took over as manager of United earlier this summer.

A little context: Schweinsteiger made 342 league appearances for Bayern during 13 seasons as a first-team player; he won the Champions League once and the Bundesliga eight times. But two of those Bundesliga titles came in his final two seasons in Germany, a period in which, according to TransferMarkt.com, the midfielder missed 50 games due to injury.

Nevertheless, in the summer of 2015, Schweinsteiger moved to Manchester United to play for then manager Louis Van Gaal. Prior to managing United, Van Gaal had managed Bayern from 2009-11, a period that coincided with some of Schweinsteiger's best years. Perhaps Van Gaal was influenced by all those good memories, because it's difficult to see why else he would sign Schweinsteiger to a contract through 2018. In his first season, Schweinsteiger missed another 24 games through injury.

Now, according to reports from both Germany and England, United's new manager, Jose Mourinho, has asked Schweinsteiger to find a new club. While he does so, he reportedly has been told to train with the reserves.

Cue sensational headlines out of Germany suggesting Schweinsteiger received this bad news on his birthday. Cue righteous anger on Reddit about the timing of it all, including the fact that Schweinsteiger just returned from his honeymoon with new wife, tennis star Ana Ivanovic. Cue the plausibly deniable condemnation tweeted by family members.

no respect

— Tobi Schweinsteiger (@tobits7)August 1, 2016

Is that really the issue though, Tobi? Respect? Or is the real problem nostalgia?

The trouble with Schweinsteiger, and indeed with once-great players in any sport who are inching toward the end of their careers, isn't respect but declining ability. And the reason Schweinsteiger's "treatment" is an issue at all is because fans are nostalgic by nature. Managers, on the other hand—at least the good ones—can't be.

The timing—the birthday, the honeymoon—has nothing to do with it. This decision is all business. Should Mourinho have postponed the bad news until the next transfer window because Schweinsteiger was born in the summer? Of course not. If anything, it's better for Schweinsteiger that he got the news as early as possible, so he can srt out a move before the transfer window closes at the end of the month.

Similarly, reports that Schweinsteiger has also been asked to "clean out his locker" and train with the reserves, and that this constitutes some kind of classless act on Mourinho's part, are moot. There's a reason fired employees are often asked to leave work immediately. You don't need a MBA to understand that letting them hang around is not good for morale—theirs or anyone else's.

It's fitting that another German, U.S. national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, has articulated the problem of nostalgia in sports better than anyone. In a 2014 conversation with the New York Times, Klinsmann talked about his disapproval of the two-year, $48.5 million contract extension Kobe Bryant, then 35 and clearly on the decline, had just signed with the Lakers:

"Kobe Bryant, for example—why does he get a two-year contract extension for $50 million? Because of what he is going to do in the next two years for the Lakers? Of course not. Of course not. He gets it because of what he has done before. It makes no sense. Why do you pay for what has already happened?"

In the world of sports management, nostalgia is poisonous. Nostalgia makes you overvalue players and spend too much on their wages. (I'm looking at you, Van Gaal.) Nostalgia makes you try and shoehorn old-timers into positions where you might have better options. (I'm looking at you, Roy Hodgson.)

Mourinho appears to be aware of those perils. At the same time, he clearly still sees value in Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Wayne Rooney, despite their age. It will be interesting to see whether he can get them to produce, or whether they'll spend next season as overpaid near-retirees, robbing younger players of experience and collecting way more money than they're worth. Mourinho is not infallible. He has made mistakes in the past. He's sold players who have plenty of upside. He's mistreated employees who deserved better. But with Schweinsteiger, at least, it's not about age or what he's done in the past. It's about ability.

Hell, Mourinho isn't even the first person to make this particular call, to look at Schweinsteiger and consider ability before nostalgia. As my friend and die-hard Bayern supporter Susie Schaaf pointed out, Schweinsteiger's old club knows the danger of nostalgia, too.

Every Bayern supporter hates Mou. Given. But, let's be fair, if Basti had ankles left, Bayern would not have sold him the first place.

— Susie Schaaf (@fussballsusie)August 2, 2016

_Want to read more stories like this from VICE Sports? Subscribe to our daily newsletter. _Brian Blickenstaff is a VICE Sports staff writer. Follow him on Twitter: @BKBlick__