Well, well, well…
The weekend has passed and Jose Mourinho, despite what we heard on Friday, is still Manchester United manager.
Talk that he was set to be shown the door at Old Trafford did the rounds ahead of the game with Newcastle on Saturday, rumoured to be his last as manager regardless of the result.
United won – despite Rafa Benitez’s men building a two-goal lead in the opening ten minutes – and speculation that the former Chelsea boss is set for an imminent departure has since cooled.
A fresh report from ESPN also adds weight to the feeling that Mourinho isn’t quite ready to check out of his Lowry Hotel suite any time soon.
Whereas the summer rumours linking United with moves for Toby Alderweireld, Harry Maguire, Jerome Boateng and every other central defender under the sun amounted to nothing, it seems Mourinho is still keen to strengthen his team’s backline.
The report claims he has told the club to prove they are still behind him by sanctioning moves for Milan Skriniar of Inter Milan and Alessio Romagnoli of AC Milan.
Mourinho is said to have had difficulty persuading the United board to make moves for the likes of Boateng and Alderweireld over concerns about their age (both will be over 30 by the end of this season). Skriniar and Romagnoli, however, are both 23.
Should United move for one or both of the players in January, they will also be eligible for the knockout stages of the Champions League after a Uefa rule change ahead of the new season.
The report claims that each player is valued at around £40m, though it’s not clear if United are prioritising one over the other or if Mourinho is pushing to sign both. If the club do decide to make a move, it places the futures of Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelöf – the Portuguese’s other two central defensive signings while at Old Trafford – in further doubt.
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