Jose adamant he’s not ready to concede title to ruthless City
City and Arsenal were always expected to return for Evans, despite the summer knockback.
And now his former club United are believed to be considering a buy-back of a player they sold for £8m in 2015 with Old Trafford central defender Eric Bailly ruled out for at least three months following ankle surgery.
Jose Mourinho is among a Manchester United majority who believe it was a mistake by predecessor Louis Van Gaal to allow Evans to leave after 11 years and 198 appearances for the club. Pardew has said he is set for talks with Evans ahead of the January transfer window to assess his state of mind.
“We will have to cover all of those scenarios,” he said. “It’s not nice having to deal with all of that but I’m still hopeful. We still have four or five games before the transfer window opens. A lot can happen. We need to be on our guard. We’ve also talked about players who might be available to come in. We won’t make an approach to any club or player just yet.”
Mourinho, meanwhile, warned City that his side will not let up in the Premier League title race after they held on for victory.
United won thanks to goals from Romelu Lukaku and Jesse Lingard but were forced to defend late on after Gareth Barry pulled a goal back for Albion.
Mourinho refused to be drawn on a video leaked on social media of City’s players taunting his club over their style of play by singing ‘park the bus’.
But he did insist that United will not ease off until the end of the season despite City’s 11-point lead in the title race.
“I know that the questions are always coming in the same direction and I keep saying the same,” said Mourinho.
“Our last match in the Premier League is Watford at Old Trafford, in mid-May, and until then in every match we go — every match we will try to win.
“If people ask that question to us and then you do it to the third team and the fourth and to the fifth and to the sixth, probably they will disappear.
“Probably they want to go on holidays. We want to play until the last match.”
Lukaku refused to celebrate his opening goal against the club where he launched his Premier League with a successful season on loan and Mourinho claimed the Belgian might have taken his lead from his manager.
“I think two reasons,” said Mourinho of Lukaku’s non-celebration.
“One is his love for West Bromwich Albion. He was a happy kid here, they helped him to feel loved
“And probably the second thing is he looked at me and I didn’t celebrate too, so he says ‘if he doesn’t celebrate why should I celebrate?’
“You get more experienced, you get more balanced,” he said.
“You don’t go crazy when you win. You don’t get depressed when you lose. You are much more stable with experience.