If reports before the international break were to be believed, Luke Shaw’s days at Manchester United were numbered.
Jose Mourinho couldn’t stand the sight of the young left-back, who was apparently spending his days hobbling around the AON Training Complex wincing at pain from the leg that he snapped over a year ago and picking and choosing when he could be arsed playing for the club.
As it is, the relationship between the pair doesn’t appear to be quite as strained as some in the media will have us believe. That’s if you’re going off what Mourinho said in his Friday press conference.
Speaking to reporters ahead of Saturday’s visit from Arsenal, Mourinho was asked about Shaw’s availability for the match. Declaring that he was ready to play, the United boss also added that rumours of a strained relationship between the pair were wide of the mark.
“Luke Shaw worked well in this period where we had a very small group, which is not the best,” Mourinho said.
“He worked really well, he is ready to play and I don’t have any problem with him.
“I’m not saying he plays or he doesn’t play tomorrow, I’m saying that he is my player and that he is a young player with potential. He is a young player like every young player, with little problems, with things he needs to learn and things he needs to improve.
“But he is a player of my confidence and playing now in two weeks playing five matches like we are going to do, in three competitions, for sure he is going to play.”
Looks like things aren’t too bad between the pair after all… But what of Chris Smalling?
Last seen making N’Golo Kante look like Diego Maradona at his brilliant best, it was also reported that Mourinho wasn’t too pleased with the England defender’s reaction to an injury.
Asked about his fitness, Mourinho delivered an angry response:
“Chris Smalling you cannot ask, you cannot ask because you have your sources, you trust your sources, you believe in your sources, you write what your sources tell you and you did that for 15 days.
“So now you are not going to ask me to comment on your sources’ information so Chris Smalling I don’t comment, you have your trustful relationship with your sources, you wrote, you spoke, you comment, you criticise, so that’s fine for me. I don’t say a word about Chris Smalling. I don’t say a word.
“You have your sources. You do the big headlines with your sources and now I’m not interested in commenting on that.”
Good news for Shaw. As for Smalling, it’s still very unclear.
