Wayne Rooney has spoken about the appointment of Jose Mourinho as Manchester United manager for the first time, with the striker claiming his new boss is “one of the best in the world”.
Advertisement
It will be very interesting to see which of the clubs is going to appoint the Manchester United legend as their manager, and even more exciting to see how he would fare as a manager! “If, in the English Premier League, I focus on him at Manchester City and he on me at Manchester United, another team will win the title”.
The simmering antagonism between the pair exploded in 2011 shortly before a Champions league semi-final between the two sides when Guardiola, responding to provocation from Mourinho, delivered an uncharacteristically caustic attack on his rival.
“I always worked well with him and would have been keen that the co-operation lasted longer”, the defender said in a recent interview while training with the Netherlands national team.
The Holland global was identified as one of the players that could be moved on by the Portuguese coach this summer, as Mourinho looks to embark upon a major rebuilding process at Old Trafford. “We were unbeaten in the qualifying campaign and I’ve scored a lot of goals since I’ve been captain”, Rooney said.
Mourinho was employed as an assistant coach by Barcelona during Guardiola’s playing days at the club in the mid-1990s and they enjoyed an amiable relationship, though this broke down once they were both in charge of Spain’s biggest clubs.
Mata, who has attracted tentative interest from Barcelona, has yet to talk with Mourinho and is expected to wait for the new manager to clarify his intentions before making any decision over his future.
The former Ajax left back was one of Louis van Gaal’s first signings when he joined Manchester United in 2014, and Blind has become an integral part of the club’s defence, switching to the centre alongside Chris Smalling. “The season did not go as planned and that hurt my confidence a bit”, he said.
Advertisement
“There’s real fight amongst the managers who’ll be eager to start well so I think it will be interesting times”. “It’s now up to me to deal with this situation and get back on track”.
