Jose
Mourinho officially begins work as Manchester United manager on Monday
|
Jose Mourinho on Monday
will set about rebuilding his and Manchester United's reputation on his first
official day as manager.
Press Association report continues:
The
53-year-old self-proclaimed Special One, who announced himself to English
football when winning at Old Trafford with Porto 12 years ago, was appointed
successor to Louis van Gaal in May.
United
won the 2015-16 FA Cup under the Dutchman, but finished only fifth in the
Premier League.
Mourinho
began last season at Chelsea as defending champions, but departed last December
in acrimony.
He
will aim to show there is no lasting stain on his reputation by bidding to
transform the United squad, with two new signings expected to be followed by a
number of others.
Eric
Bailly and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are set to be joined by Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the
Armenia midfielder who is to sign from Borussia Dortmund.
Paul
Pogba could also return to Old Trafford, the France midfielder having been
jettisoned by Sir Alex Ferguson before thriving at Juventus.
Pogba,
who would reportedly cost a world record fee in the region of £100million, is
an example of Ferguson losing faith in young talent.
But
one nurtured so well by the Scot has now left Manchester United after 29 years.
Ryan Giggs departed last week to pursue his managerial career, having
previously warned United must continue to develop youth players.
Mourinho
will likely defend his record at promoting youth when he is unveiled as boss,
but he will be expected to show his faith in Marcus Rashford and others on the
pitch.
As
well as incomings, there will be outgoings, but goalkeeper David de Gea is
among those Mourinho will be determined to keep.
Juan
Mata will be wondering what the future holds after being sold by Mourinho to
United when he was at Chelsea.
Mkhitaryan
appears likely to join prior to Mourinho's first match in charge, in Shanghai
against the Armenian's current employers Dortmund on July 22.
The
first contest between Pep Guardiola's Manchester City and Mourinho's United
takes place in Beijing on July 25.
The
pair endured a fractious rivalry while Mourinho was boss of Real Madrid and
Guardiola led Barcelona.
Mourinho won La Liga with
Real in 2012 before Guardiola's sabbatical and will hope he can continue to win
the duel between the pair.
No comments:
Post a Comment