After a brief upturn in his public mood in the aftermath of the Burnley victory a fortnight ago Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was back to his combative, prickly and disdainful worst in his pre-match press conference ahead of the game at Watford on Saturday.
Mourinho snarled at the gathered press corps and ranted on this time about the unfair perception of his management of Marcus Rashford over the last two years.
Turns out Rashford has had more opportunities than many have given Mourinho credit for. Great. Thanks for that Jose. Illuminating as usual.
But he seemed peeved about the amount of time that Fred has been on international duty and was also quoted later as saying that he’s ‘in the dark’ about media reports that Paul Pogba wants to leave Manchester United.
The Daily Mail published this Mourinho monologue earlier:
‘If I watch Mr Raiola on the screen saying the players wants to leave, and that he is organising a way for him to try to leave or so on, then I will believe,’
‘At this moment, I am in the dark. The only thing that is clear for me is that the player never – never in all these days we are together – he never told me that he wants to leave.
‘I also need the agent to tell me or tell you in a way that I can see.’
Sportsmail has reported that Raiola held talks with Barcelona over the summer and Pogba’s situation has further clouded United during a difficult start to the season.
‘If he doesn’t tell me he wants to leave, it’s because he wants to stay. That’s my conclusion.’
TFF feels that this relationship would be easy to resolve and improve without all this needles posturing in the media. Jose is almost asking Pogba to request a transfer instead of simply saying, ‘he’s not for sale. Next question.’
The upturn of form against Burnley gives reason for a little more optimism but Jose needs to mastermind a month of masterful displays to lift the lingering gloom, which his morbid press conferences are doing little to dispel.