Man United told fans to leave '60 per cent earlier' for Valencia game

Manchester United told their own supporters to leave home '60 per cent' earlier than usual to get to the Champions League game against Valencia - but still managed to be late themselves.

Heavy traffic and roadworks near the club's Old Trafford stadium wreaked havoc on Tuesday night, causing a delay to the game as the United team bus arrived just 45 minutes before the scheduled kick-off time.

Incredibly, it has emerged that supporters were notified of the planned roadworks at a fans' forum on September 21, with the club advising them to plan ahead to ensure they didn't miss the start of the match.

Instead, it was the players causing the delay as the team bus got stuck, with UEFA then charging the club after the match eventually kicked off at 8:05pm.

Jose Mourinho blamed the police in the aftermath of the team's 75-minute journey from the Lowry Hotel to Old Trafford, claiming they were refused a police escort.

That has been refuted by Greater Manchester officers though, with Chief Inspector Andy Sutcliffe saying: 'All police deployments are carried out following a comprehensive risk assessment process and, specifically in respect of escort team buses, are only ever undertaken on occasions when there is intelligence or information to suggest a risk of threat or harm to the players.

'GMP has previously used police vehicles to accompany a team’s coach but after a review of our core policing responsibilities it was decided that we would no longer provide this service at every fixture.

'We consulted with the relevant football clubs over a period of months to allow them adequate time to plan ahead for their journeys to the stadium.

'Every fixture is assessed individually and we will continue to work with all clubs to provide an appropriate policing response.'

Mourinho was furious that the journey from the Lowry took well over an hour, with the team setting off at 6pm and not arriving until 7.15pm.

He said: 'We left the hotel at six o’clock hoping that 30 minutes would be enough, which it normally is, but this time the police refused to do an escort so we had to come by ourselves.'

United say they are in discussions with Transport for Greater Manchester as they try to work out the 'best solution' to the problems raised by 12 months of roadworks near the club's stadium.