There's plenty of young talent at Old Trafford, but instead of nurturing it the former Real Madrid and Chelsea boss seems hell-bent on destroying it
“There are certain things I cannot get from them,” Jose Mourinho said about his players after Wednesday’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal.
It’s been a familiar gripe from the Portuguese throughout his Manchester United tenure, despite being in charge for five transfer windows.
But while he can follow that up with excuses concerning the board’s co-operation with him, there is another way the manager can bolster his squad – and it is one he is very familiar with.
When he was unveiled as the new manager of the Red Devils, the former Real Madrid boss made a point that he is a man who trusts in youth.
Anticipating criticism of what he called “one lie repeated too many times”, Mourinho presented the media with a list of 49 players he claimed to have promoted from academies.
He did, after all, win the Premier League title in 2005 with the youngest squad ever to do so, one with an average age of just 25 years and 312 days.
Upon further inspection, it was clear Mourinho had tried to manipulate the numbers to reflect positively on himself, but his point remained – he has handed out 36 professional debuts to academy players.
Since arriving at Old Trafford, he has increased that number by six, but only Scott McTominay has made a real impression on the first-team squad.
Given names such as Jese, Alvaro Morata, Nacho, Fabinho, Denis Cheryshev, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Andreas Christensen were on Mourinho’s list, it’s a wonder he isn’t looking to United’s academy more.
Given he sits at the helm of a club that has produced some of the best talent this country has ever seen, including a 1995-96 Premier League-winning squad that is younger than only Mourinho’s Chelsea of 2005, it’s even more of a wonder.
And given his desire to prove that he does give youth a chance, it’s quite remarkable.
While he continues to overlook the talent brewing beneath the first-team, United are falling behind in their production of young players, with them no longer one of the leading names in this department.
When England’s youth sides brought home two World Cups and a European Championship last year, only two Manchester United players were involved.
One of those was Dean Henderson, a goalkeeper currently on loan at Sheffield United. The other was Angel Gomes, a creative midfielder who has four goals in eight games for United’s Under-23s this season.
Gomes is another name that Mourinho can add to his debut document, but the manager is doing little else for his development with the 18-year-old nowhere near the first-team this season.
Mason Greenwood is another who could provide a handy solution to Mourinho’s problems. The highly rated 17-year-old striker has netted 17 goals and provided five assists in 16 games across competitions for United’s youth teams this term.
However, despite him occasionally training with the first-team and despite Romelu Lukaku’s poor form, Greenwood does not appear to be in Mourinho’s thoughts.
Instead of this exciting young generation getting a chance, Mourinho is defiantly playing the players he deems ‘not good enough’.
Misfits, who have either proven his point or lost their confidence under the Portuguese, are pulling on the famous red shirt instead of someone who could follow in the footsteps of Marcus Rashford, who has been United’s star player in their last two outings.
As he continues to play a team he knows isn’t up to the task, it’s seems Mourinho has lost his hunger for success and this new, defiant Mourinho is simply out to expose the dysfunctional United board to avenge them not buying the players he has wanted.
While he continues this childish agenda, other clubs are relishing the chance to work with England’s new 'golden generation'.
Wolves’ own FIFA Under-17 World Cup winner, Morgan Gibbs-White, starred and provided an assist as his team beat Chelsea 2-1 on Wednesday.
His England team-mate Gomes can only wonder what that feels like as he prepares to take on Middlesbrough in the Premier League 2 on Friday – a second-division club have just as many who had just as many youth world champions last year as Manchester United.
Mourinho is doing plenty of damage by overlooking the Red Devils’ exciting academy for error-prone transfer flops, most of which he probably doesn’t care about.
But the results that are coming from this are turning his United tenure into a failure and damaging the one thing he loves the most - his reputation as one of football’s greats.
Fizaeopsuz
246
Every day it's Mou didn't field Sanchez, martial, Lukaku, pogba, valencia and whoever they choose. Mou can have 50 or so players including the youth but he can only field 11 for any game. Which youth player is worth talking about at the club at the moment. And in whose place will that kid play. And if the kid plays in place of eg pogba then the headlines are like pogba wants to leave man u at the end of the season or pogba not happy with bench duties and he's wanted at Juve. I am still wondering who employs these cattleherders masquerading as sports journos. We the football fans deserve better than this.
Football-Manager
191
Wow 😮 Really? Are we going to go there? How many of the United players are from the youth side? Compare that to any of the big four. Did Guardiola not get rid of Sancho? I didn’t hear or read any journalist cover that or did I miss something? Ferdinand and Scholes screamed foul yesterday because Mourinho decided to play the kids instead of the waste of money Pogba and Lukaku. Now Mourinho hates United’s kids? Who ever wrote this needs to get his facts right or get a life. The Mourinho bashing is getting old and boring. Leave our manager alone! 😡🤬
Poebdlmosu
157
Mouriho don't hate junior player but he doesn't know how to play football and he don't know how it look like when young players are very talented. the answer is that you can't give what you don't have . Mouriho has nothing to offer to united. if he continues here in united nothing will change. maybe tomorrow he win one match and next loose. every team in England is looking at united like team to earn 3points from under Mouriho. all team in Europe are looking at united useless team under Mouriho. every need I hear about united this moment is is fined united disaster no more good news for united fans. please Mouriho should go now. the earlier the better
noacdekmyz
108
Wow really? This is a pure Hate speech write up and it's not good for football, you are just a quack journalist looking for headline. You know Mourinho name cover crowd so everybody want to use his name but don't put hatred into it. Mourinho is the most loyal Coach in Manchester U. mention one top coach that encourage the youth more than Mourinho. The youth are never suppose to be in the team, they are suppose to be loaned out but he put his job on line and continue with them. What did you guys want from him? You the quack Journalist I hope you get sack for this to learn your lesson. if you want to trend do it without been negative about others.
sweetoxx
101
Media always talk negative and trash about Man Utd.. I understand the criticism but when it crosses the line I hate it. Mourinho has never said he don't like youngsters but on the other side he likes his team hardworking and mature which he finds lacking in lot of youngsters these days.. even Rashford, Pogba and Martial lack maturity and character that's why he subs them off/falls out with them frequently. He knows his players well enough to criticize them and drop them. On tough times like these you can't expect a Manager like him to try it out with young guns. Manchester United lacks characters and not talents.. I'd say that we have better talents than another club in the league.. There will be time for our young players to show up what they've got.