Here are the latest Manchester United news stories that have been circulating in the Twitterverse, blogopshere and media world the past twelve hours or so. It’s Manchester Derby week, and we have items on several different players to cover, so let’s dive right in.
We start with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who almost joined this week’s opponents, Manchester City. Ibra once came close to joining Arsenal too.
“I was close to moving to the Premier League twice – once with Arsenal and then Manchester City. But it never happened and I don’t need to play in the Premier League,” Ibrahimovic told Sky Sports.
“Mourinho is the mastermind, the master brain. He knows what he needs to do to win. I learned a lot from him at Inter. Who wouldn’t want to have Mourinho as manager?”
Here’s a link to more on why he picked United, and Mourinho.
–Luke Shaw sat out an England training session, and was sent back to the club, but it was only precautionary. He should be good to go for the Manchester Derby.
Via NBC Sports Pro Soccer Talk:
The Football Association announced on Saturday that Shaw had returned to United after the left-back was rested from training at St. George’s Park as the medical team continue to manage his workload following his recovery from a double leg fracture. Speaking ahead of the World Cup qualifying match in Slovakia, the new England boss revealed (with quotes from the Daily Star):
“It’s a slight problem with the leg. A little ache, muscular. [But] with what he’s been through, we didn’t want to take a chance. It’s the calf where the break was. He’s done exceptionally well given the games he’s played, but he didn’t feel comfortable so the wise thing to do was send him back to United.”
However, Allardyce went on to add: “I’d be surprised if he wasn’t okay for United’s next game,” which will come as a massive boost given his impressive start to the new campaign.”
-Manager Jose Mourinho may be without the services of three of his South American players this weekend for the Manchester Derby. The good news is that two of them weren’t very likely to play much of a role anyway.
Goalkeeper Sergio Romero and defenders Antonio Valencia and Marcos Rojo won’t return from international duty until Friday due to World Cup qualifiers, meaning they are major doubts to face Manchester City in the Manchester derby showdown between Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. Said Mourinho:
“It will be a complicated process but we know it is like this when we have these players. And I would love all of the players to go because it would mean that everybody is being selected for their national teams.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
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