Having signed Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly this summer, Mourinho said that no more players will be arriving at the club in the remaining days of the transfer window.
Advertisement
Mkhitaryan, a £30million off-season signing for United from Borussia Dortmund, has played just 29 Premier League minutes off the bench to begin the campaign.
“It is hard to leave him out at the moment admittedly, but if Juan Mata is on the bench then you are telling me that I want to kick him out”.
“If I don’t play Martial it’s because he is in crisis, or if I don’t play Ashley Young, it’s because I don’t like Ashley Young”.
Mourinho has emphatically told the 32-year-old that he does not feature in his first-team plans, but rather than look for a new club, Schweinsteiger released a statement this week saying he had no desire to leave.
“I have 23 players in the squad and, in principle, there is nobody leaving and nobody is coming”, he stated. If it’s Memphis Depay, it is because he is on his way out.
When asked yesterday if there was any chance Schweinsteiger could play for United at all this season, Mourinho replied: “I think it’s very hard to happen”. “I can not choose competitions, I can not say Zlatan doesn’t play one single Europa League game”.
“But he is ready to play and maybe he will play tomorrow (in United’s away league clash with Hull)”.
I’m in no doubt Mkhitaryan will be a mint player for United in the goodness of time. We would have all wanted to see him start by now but Mourinho has a strong squad and as he pointed out he would probably be lambasted if a different player was left out. After all, why change a winning side?
Advertisement
Schweinsteiger has two years left on the United contract he signed when joining them last summer, and in terms of the prospect of him staying on at the club despite not playing, Mourinho said: “I can not answer for him”.
