Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, typically very loquacious and often very animated, gave an extremely short and terse session today at his weekly Friday press conference. He showed up 30 minutes earlier than scheduled for the session, refused to really answer some questions, and gave brief and extremely defensive answers to other queries.
And yes, he obviously showed up early so that many, if not most media member wouldn’t be there yet. You can hear audio of the entire session at this YouTube link. All in all, the presser’s 13 questions and answers lasted only four minutes and 19 seconds. It was a bizarre press conference that he was clearly not interested in doing in the first place.
https://twitter.com/TeamFA/status/1032993178180349954
Mourinho said his relationship with Executive Vice Chairman Ed Woodward is fine despite reports suggesting the two are at odds. When asked about reports claiming a rift between the two men, Mourinho responded: “I don’t know 10% of what is written. I’m not the right guy to answer.”
It has also been widely reported that Mourinho doesn’t get along with Paul Pogba, United’s captain for the first two games of the season. Pogba said after last weekend’s disastrous loss at Brighton & Hove Albion that he didn’t have “the right attitude” for the match. When asked about this, Mourinho offered nothing beyond this as a response:
“Paul has to answer by his words. If you want any explanation about Paul’s words you must get him and ask him.”
It’s very understandable why Mourinho wouldn’t be keen to talk to the media much right now. He’s under a ton of pressure and the media are essentially blasting him everyday.
Still, his behavior today is the epitome of his infamous “third season syndrome,” and he conveyed exactly why the bookies have him favored to be the first Premier League manager sacked this season.
United vs Tottenham Injury Report/Match Preview: coming shortly
United, Tottenham Starting XI Predictions: coming shortly
Kick-off: 8 pm (BST), Monday 27 August
Odds via Betway: United 6/4 Draw 12/5 Tottenham 9/5
Prediction: United 1, Tottenham 1
Feel free to post your own United and/or Spurs starting XI predictions, as well as your best guess as to what the final score will be.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud and YouTube. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to any and all of his.