It’s international break, and hence a slower period of news, but there’s still a ton of Manchester United storylines circulating on the internet today. The headline narrative is of course the uncertain long term future of manager Jose Mourinho at the club. Here’s a link to more on that.
Mourinho has shown a true of sign of real long term commitment to the club Friday night however. Mourinho went to Stockholm and watched Italy face Sweden last night in order to keep tabs on a couple of his players.
Here’s more via the Manchester Evening News:
The Portuguese rocked up to the Friends Arena – the scene of his greatest United triumph just six months ago – on Friday night. Tellingly, he was alone and there was no sign of Rui Faria, Silvino Louro or any of his trusted assistants.
Mourinho was taking the excursion so seriously that he was even sat several rows away from a grinning Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who also popped along to watch Sweden’s play-off win against Italy.
There were two very obvious reasons why Mourinho was there: to check on Victor Lindelof’s progress in, arguably, one of the biggest games of his career; and to monitor Matteo Darmian’s performance ahead of several potential starts in the coming weeks.
Now let’s transition to what else is going on.
There’s word that Mourinho and Luke Shaw are no longer on speaking terms, and that’s not the most shocking development in the world; when you consider what a poor relationship they have had, and how it’s deteriorated further.
So now we’re back to discussing potential escape routes for the young left back. It seems the England international stands a very good chance of staying in the big six. The Guardian has much more:
United are likely to listen to offers for Shaw in January but will still demand a fee in excess of £20 million, which, coupled with his £130,000 a week wages, could put off any interested parties. Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton and Manchester City are thought to be keeping a watching brief.
-Finally, midfielder Ander Herrera, the team’s reigning player of the year for 2016-17, but who has seen an unexpected severe drop in form this season, is being targeted again by Atletico Madrid.
If Herrera doesn’t sign a new deal by January 1, he will be free to negotiate with the Madrid club. It might not come to that though, as Metro claims Mourinho:
“has ordered the club to trigger a 12-month extension clause in Ander Herrera’s contract in order to block interest from Atletico Madrid.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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