Like a famous Cerveza brand espouses, “find your beach.”
However, you won’t find it by joining up Manchester United; obviously. United Manager Jose Mourinho made some very interesting and highly entertaining comments about recruitment in the upcoming summer transfer window, making reference to the beaches of Los Angeles.
United obviously love the state of California and all that it offers in the summer preseason. They will be training at the University of California-Los Angeles and playing exhibition friendlies in the Golden State yet again. They are frequent visitors to California for their summer preseason exhibitions, but Mourinho knows that’s just a vacation, and not the job.
Or at least his commentary today conveys such a belief as the Portugese sent a message to summer transfer targets who might be more interested in the beaches of Los Angeles and the glitz and glamor of London.
“If a player wants to move to London, enjoy London — we don’t want you,” Mourinho said.
“If the first thing you think is where you’re going to live, well, think Los Angeles.”
“Galaxy would be the first choice and then Vitoria Setubal, go to the beach every day. There are beautiful places to live and to play. We want people who are really engaged with the first contact.”
“We want people that if I call some guy or if Mr Woodward calls some player or some agent, we want people who are immediately engaged, immediately dreaming about coming. This is the profile of players we want. If you don’t want to come to us, good luck, enjoy your other club.”
Mourinho is referencing United Executive Vice President Ed Woodward, who will not doubt give him a very large war chest to work with this summer transfer market. Antoine Griezmann is considered to be the #1 target.
The lure of London, with its global cosmopolitanism and all the amenities that go with it, has always been an obstacle in recruiting for the northwest England clubs. However, alluding to Vitoria Setubal, the Portugese Primeira Liga side, is creative and new.
Basically, Mourinho conveyed the message here that he only wants players who will think on-the-pitch first and foremost, and put the off-the-pitch stuff on the back burner.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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