Can the appointment of a firebrand manager with a history of success help push the share price of Manchester United up the league table?
The Premier League soccer club announced on Friday that Jose Mourinho would be its next manager. The 53-year-old Portuguese veteran of the game has signed a three-year contract with an option to stay on until at least 2020.
After rumors of Mourinho's appointment surfaced last week, shares of Wall Street-listed Manchester United rallied more than 1 percent. Prior to Friday's U.S. open, they sat at $16.98 and rose 1.24 percent in the first hour of trade.
Mourinho has managed other top-flight clubs – Chelsea, FC Porto, Inter Milan and Real Madrid – and won 32 trophies during his career.
Sports agent and former market strategist, Michael Jarman, said the self-styled "special one" would help investors buy in to the story of Manchester United.
"Manchester United need to ensure Champions League (qualification) and Mourinho's record tends to suggest he basically guarantees clubs that financial prize.
"I think you can expect to see a short-term lift in the share price," Jarman told CNBC on Friday.
However, Jarman said a long-term rise in the share price might be harder to achieve as the club has already maximized value.
"The new TV deal is already factored in to the share price. The club is two years in to its $600 million deal with Chevrolet and it's already got a 10-year kit deal with Adidas. Unless they lift ticket prices there is not much more they can get," he told CNBC.
No one better
In a statement on Friday, the executive vice-chairman of Manchester United, Ed Woodward, said there was no one better than Mourinho to guarantee success on the pitch.
"Jose is quite simply the best manager in the game today. He has won trophies and inspired players in countries across Europe and, of course, he knows the Premier League very well, having won three titles here," he said.
Complexities over Mourinho's image rights, owned by Chelsea Football Club, caused delays in his appointment, but Manchester United say the issue is now resolved.
His personal sponsorship deal with Jaguar may also be ended early, should Manchester United deem it to be in conflict with the club-wide Chevrolet sponsorship.
Mourinho's salary details have not been released, but tabloid newspaper reports claim the Portuguese manager will pocket £10 million ($15 million) each season.
And, what does the man himself think? It is all sweetness and light, for now:
"To become Manchester United manager is a special honor in the game. It is a club known and admired throughout the world. There is a mystique and a romance about it which no other club can match. I have always felt an affinity with Old Trafford," Mourinho said in the statement from Manchester United on Friday