Manchester United have endured a somewhat rocky pre-season this summer, with Jose Mourinho visibly disgruntled about the lack of transfer business to have taken place since the capture of Shakhtar Donetsk’s Fred in June. A central defender and a right-sided forward have both been high on the Portuguese manager’s wishlist, but as of yet, no deal has been concluded for either. Still, having missed a large chunk of his squad due to many of United’s players taking part in the knockout stages of the World Cup, the club have welcomed back Marcus Rashford, Phil Jones and Romelu Lukaku over the last few days.
Speaking after the 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich on Sunday evening, Mourinho appeared optimistic about the return of several of his first team players.
“Rashford will be in a better situation than today,” the United manager told MUTV. “Lindelof the same, Jones the same and let’s see if one of the others is ready to give us a help, 20-25 minutes. Any help that can come from them, is welcome.”
He also confirmed that Marouane Fellaini, Paul Pogba, Ashley Young and Jesse Lingard have returned to training.
Mourinho is still less-than impressed that United will begin the new season on Friday, which gives his team less time to prepare than other Premier League sides: “Even though, and I want to say a nice word, we were ‘unlucky’ to get the Friday match as we could get the Sunday [fixture]. We were unlucky to get the Friday match. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is not enough, but we will see.”
After a summer of discontent, with the United manager also losing Nemanja Matic and Antonio Valencia to injury ahead of the start of this new campaign, the Portuguese’s mood appears to have calmed somewhat, with rumours swirling of deals in the offing for both Tottenham Hotspur’s Toby Alderweireld and Bayern Munich’s Jerome Boateng. Given that the former Chelsea boss has craved another centre back this summer, here’s hoping that United’s transfer brokers can get a deal over the line.
