As we all obviously know, Jose Mourinho took charge in the summer. The self-proclaimed Special One was named Louis van Gaal successor towards the end of May, just after we won the FA Cup title.
Our Portuguese coach made some truly outstanding signings within his first few months, as he sealed deals for Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba. All four players have definitely had hugely positive impacts on the current squad – but Mourinho has admitted he would have liked one more.
That man was Renato Sanches, who eventually signed for Bayern Munich. Mourinho’s Portuguese compatriot really became a star at the European Championships last summer, but he hasn’t had it all his own way this season.
The 19-year-old has found starts hard to come by, and now Mourinho has been speaking to the media about whether he was interested in him. The gaffer has confirmed that he would have fought to sign Sanches if he was here early enough.
“I arrived late,” Mourinho is quoted as saying by The Manchester Evening News. “I signed in May, we started talking a week before, but completely out of the process. If I had arrived earlier, I’d fight for him.”
These quotes just go to show how highly regarded Sanches is. He’s obviously a supremely talented footballer, and it is a bit of a shame to see him being wasted out in Bavaria.
Who knows, if he continues to be unable to break into Bayern’s starting XI, he could become unhappy and try to move away. At which point, I’d imagine Mourinho will be right at the forefront of that queue – I don’t expect this will happen any time soon, however.
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