Mourinho Rules Out Late Summer Signing For Man United Ahead Leicester Clash
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has ruled out any deadline day signings and will meet with Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Romelu Lukaku, Ashley Young and Marouane Fellaini to see who feels fit enough to play against Leicester City at Old Trafford in Friday’s English Premier League opener.
Manchester United will be without Nemanja Matic, Ander Herrera, Sergio Romero, Antonio Valencia and Marcos Rojo for the game due to injuries.
The former Chelsea manager reveals during his pre-match conference on Thursday ahead of Friday’s game that his team is focused and ready for the clash.
“I’m not confident, I’m not confident and the market closes today so its time at least for me to stop thinking about the market because the market will be closed,” Mourinho replied when asked about any deadline day arrivals.
“So I will have to focus on the players I have.
“And in relation to this first couple of matches, maybe three matches because after Spurs there is national team and a couple of weeks to recover people and prepare people better, it’s to focus on players available, so I’m not thinking about that list I give you, I focus on what we have.” The information I have is no.”
“They (Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Romelu Lukaku, Ashley Young and Marouane Fellaini) return on Monday, train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and today so you can imagine that they are not really fit and ready.”
“But we have needs, the list that I gave you before of the injured players is an important list and today after training I will speak with that group of players because everybody is different physically and mentally.”
“I see how they feel, how they are and to understand – to think how they can help or not help.
“[Sergio] Romero, he had a surgery after his injury in the World Cup, Valencia, he was injured in pre-season, Marcos Rojo, he was injured in the World Cup.
“Dalot had a surgery in Porto by the end of April and not yet ready.
“Ander Herrera injured against Bayern, Matic injured in the World Cup and surgery in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago. And I think that’s it.”
On the game against Leicester City Mourinho said: “It’s not an opportunity, opportunity of what? It’s not an opportunity, it’s a match, an important match, we would prefer to have a couple more days but decision was to be first to play and that’s it. We’re ready.
“No miracles. The players with a proper pre-season are fit and they are strong. For example, Alexis Sanchez had a good pre-season with lots of matches and lots of minutes.
“He’s more than ready but you cannot have the players who arrived only last Monday after the World Cup semi-finals or final and three weeks’ holiday.
“The target is Leicester and the tactics to be changed in Championship Manager you can just press a button; in football you need time to work and players on the pitch to work and we didn’t have that until now.
“I told that during pre-season it looked like I was saying something absolutely out of order, something crazy.
“I repeat and maybe tomorrow the reaction is the same: Pre-season is difficult when you don’t have your players to work, it’s as simple as that.”
