Bayern president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said he could “hardly believe” Mourinho’s treatment of Schweinsteiger and believes it will turn players off joining the club in future.
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Mourinho said of his own team, whose league campaign has so far seen them beat Bournemouth 3-1 away and Southampton 2-0 at home: “For me, the important thing is we had a very hard start with a unusual pre-season with players coming step by step and not much time to work, but we won the Community Shield (beating Leicester 2-1) and six points”.
“I think it’s very hard to happen”, Mourinho said. I’m not saying it’s impossible, it’s very hard.
“We have five players for two positions, so it’s very hard for an opportunity to arise”.
And, having looked in ominous form en route to two wins from two to start the Premier League season, it appears that the new United manager is content to move forward with what he has – until January at least. “It’s very hard that an opportunity will arrive”.
“He has spoken to me”. Once he gets into the starting XI and starts to perform, I think he will be a player that gets rotated to keep him fresh and he may seldom be dropped.
However, reports today suggest Mata is set to stay put despite being told by the Portuguese manager that he will likely use Borussia Dortmund recruit, Henrikh Mkhitaryan in Mata’s preferred right-midfielder position. It’s not a problem for us. He gave his last statement which he is completely free to do in an objective and polite way. No problems at all.
When asked about Schweinsteiger’s chances of forcing his way into contention, Mourinho said: “I think it’s very hard to happen”.
“I’m quite surprised Karl-Heinze Rummennigge is not here to take him back”.
One player who is heading out is Andreas Pereira.
“No-one is coming and 23 players are more than enough. These are the decisions that every club does”.
Bastian Schweinsteiger joined Manchester United past year from Bayern Munich.
And Mourinho added: “They can play together because they did it already”. There are a lot of good players in Europe, but there are very few friends.’ And for that it was very correct and very nice. “It is a big match to play in Istanbul as it is in Rotterdam, so it is a good draw for our squad”, said Mourinho. I’ve done that all my career, not just me, everyone does it. That is why we didn’t buy more strikers. Zlatan is playing and Marcus is striker No?2 at the moment.
Brendan Rodgers may not have meant to disparage Schweinsteiger’s fading ability when asked if Celtic were interested in signing the 32-year-old.
“No – the first thing I think about is my team, not myself”.
Amid increasing speculation surrounding his possible exit, Mourinho hammered the final nail in the coffin saying SchweinsteigerÆs playing chances are less while pointing out his arsenal of midfielders comprising Paul Pogba, Ander Herrera, Morgan Schneiderlin, Marouane Fellaini and Michael Carrick, Sport24 reported.
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Mourinho also welcomed a Europa League group-stage draw that pitted his team against Dutch side Feyenoord, Turkish giants Fenerbahce and Ukrainian side Zorya Luhansk.
