Skip to main content

Mourinho’s dark mood casts shadow over Manchester United

  •  AFP
  •  >Categories:AFP
    •  
  •  

London (AFP) – Jose Mourinho’s constant carping and foul mood during Manchester United’s increasingly tortuous tour of the United States is raising questions about team morale and title hopes just over a week away from the start of the new Premier League season.
Unlike rivals Liverpool and champions Manchester City, two Premier League contenders whose pre-season has included solid preparations and astute transfers, Manchester United watchers see nothing to celebrate as the 55-year-old Portuguese manager prepares for his third term at Old Trafford.
The days when Mourinho used to poke fun at journalists with a twinkle in his eye during press conferences appear long gone, replaced by a litany of complaints as seen following the side’s 4-1 humbling by Liverpool on Saturday in their latest outing on the US tour.
Bookmakers are now taking bets on Mourinho becoming the first Premier League manager to be sacked or leave his post this season. 
Reports reaching home from the US tour depict players too nervous to talk openly about what they think, with the Daily Telegraph and The Sun claiming those in the squad feel they are “treading on eggshells”.
The Sun cites one case of an unnamed player in a panic asking the TV channel he gave an interview to erase an answer he gave them.
“It’s understood the piece of content in question wasn’t even contentious and could be considered ‘on message’ from a club point of view — but it is a measure of the tension being felt on a  troubled tour,” remarked the Manchester Evening News.
– ‘Turning sour’ –
Mourinho has a history of targeting specific players on occasion and Ivorian central defender Eric Bailly has been in his firing line in the United States.
“I don’t think he is a great leader,” Mourinho said of Bailly while adding that newly-appointed captain Antonio Valencia’s physical preparation was below expectations.
“His condition was not good when he was back,” he said after the player returned to the squad from holiday.
He was more critical of French striker Anthony Martial, who he said should have returned to the US tour after going home to be with his girlfriend when she gave birth to a baby boy in Paris.
Mourinho’s position was in stark contrast to England manager Gareth Southgate’s much-praised decision to allow Fabian Delph to leave the World Cup finals to be with his wife at the birth of their child.    
Pages 1 2

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Baraje: Saraki Stepped Down For Jonathan In 2011 And Buhari In 2015... Now Is His Time

According to Baraje, “Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has been trying his luck on being the president of this country since 2011. He withdrew for the then candidate Goodluck Jonathan. In 2015, he also withdrew for the present President Muhammadu Buhari. So for somebody who has been nursing that kind of ambition, is it not right for such person to come forward again?" A lhaji Abubakar Baraje, leader of the Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC), has expressed his support for the presidential ambition of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, should the latter officially declare. Addressing journalists at the graduation ceremony of the Baraje Centre for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, he expressed his intention to officially defect to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in “a few days". According to him, Saraki had nursed presidential ambitions in the past, particularly in 2011 and 2015, but had to step down for the candidature of for...
Post a Comment
Read more

How we plan to unseat Buhari – Moghalu, Sowore, Onovo, others

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, presidential aspirants under the different political parties have reeled out some of the tactics they plan to employ to unseat the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari. In separate interviews with our correspondents during the week, the aspirants said contrary to the belief that only the big parties stand a better chance of winning the election, they were in the race to win, adding that Nigerians were tired of the big players in the country’s political space. A presidential aspirant under the Young Progressive Party and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, said the party would work with others and persuade Nigerians to vote  out Buhari in 2019. He said, “I am in the race for the presidency based on a vision I have for my country, which is one of nation-building to create a united country that works for all of us. I want to provide leadership that is beyond mere politics, establish an educational ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fire kills five siblings locked inside room by parent

Five children left at home alone and locked in by their parents were killed in a fire in a slum at a district of the Philippine capital on Monday, firefighters said. The victims, four boys and one girl, aged between 1 and 12 years old suffered burns and suffocation, said fire marshall Jones Silvano. An initial investigation showed that the fire began in the victims’ three-storey house in the Tondo district of Manila. Two of the children were reportedly playing with a lighter and ignited some clothes. Their father was at work, while their mother had gone out to buy food and locked the door from the outside, trapping the siblings inside when the fire struck. One of the siblings, a nine-year-old boy, survived by jumping from a window on the second floor, Silvano said. “The boy called out to his elder brother to also jump, but his brother opted to stay with the younger siblings,” he said. The fire quickly spread and damaged a total of 40 houses, leaving about 500 people ...
Post a Comment
Read more