Mourinho wants more support from Manchester United

Jose Mourinho wants to carry on at Manchester United even though the manager is concerned that he is not receiving enough backing from within the club.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho shouts instructions against Valencia at Old Trafford.

Jose Mourinho wants to carry on at Manchester United even though the manager is concerned he is not receiving enough backing from within the club.

The scrutiny of Mourinho’s position intensified on Wednesday (AEST) after his United team were booed off the pitch having drawn 0-0 against Valencia in the European Champions League.

Former United midfielder Paul Scholes said he was surprised Mourinho survived after the weekend’s defeat by West Ham United and the pressure on executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward to sack him will heighten if the team fail to beat Newcastle United at home on Sunday morning (AEST).

Mourinho, who is understood to have no plans to step down despite a worrying run of form, has expressed concerns privately that he is not receiving enough support from the club after being attacked by Scholes and other pundits. He is also said to have been disappointed by a lack of public backing from within the club in his power struggle with Paul Pogba.

Mourinho has also been underwhelmed by certain departments of the club, which he feels are behind the times. Staff members say the manager has looked tired, but those close to him say he is determined to fight on and is looking forward to trying to return to winning ways.

Woodward expressed his support for Mourinho in a conference call with investors last week and it is understood his stance on the manager has not changed. The club have distanced themselves from reports they have sounded out Zinedine Zidane about replacing Mourinho, who has 18 months left on his contract. United would have to pay the Portuguese one year’s salary, £15 million ($27.4m), if they sacked him.

Mourinho’s deteriorating relationship with Pogba has become a source of concern for senior figures within the club. After the game against Valencia, Pogba said United had banned him from speaking to the media.

When reporters asked Pogba for an interview on his way out of Old Trafford, he said he was “not allowed” to speak to them. His words came three days after he refused to speak to reporters as he left the London Stadium when he said: “Do you want me dead?”

Last week, Sky Sports cameras captured a training ground argument between Mourinho and the £89 million ($163m) midfielder.

Two more episodes underlined the dysfunctional nature of United yesterday. Club captain Antonio Valencia was forced to issue a public apology after “liking” a fan’s post on Instagram that read: “Mourinho has made watching us a punishment now . . . it’s time for Mourinho to go.”

Valencia issued a statement asking for forgiveness. He said: “I liked a post on Instagram without reading the text that accompanied the picture. These are not my views and I apologise for this. I am fully supportive of the manager and my teammates. We are all giving our everything to improve the result.”

Before liking the post, Valencia spoke to reporters about his relationship with Mourinho, who accused the Ecuador international of having “too much holiday” during the summer break.

“I have never had any problems with anyone,” said Valencia, who was dropped for United’s previous Champions League match against Young Boys. “The decision is up to the manager and you’ve got to respect it.”

In another gaffe, United face a UEFA fine of up to £9000 after they turned up late for the Valencia match because of heavy traffic. The club will find out their sanction on October 18. The referee agreed to delay kick-off by five minutes after it took United 75 minutes to make the 5km journey from their hotel.

Mourinho said he and his squad were late because Greater Manchester Police refused to give them an escort to the game.

GMP disputed Mourinho’s version of events, saying the service was no longer provided as standard and that clubs had been given “adequate time to plan for their journeys to the stadium”.

GMP chief inspector Andy Sutcliffe said: “All police deployments are carried out following a risk-assessment process and are only undertaken on occasions when there is intelligence or information to suggest a risk to the players.”

The Times