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to have to work to keep former Rangers striker Lafferty (left) firing on all cylinders amid continued speculation over the Ibrox club’s next move. “As much as Kyle says it’s not having an effect, I think it probably has,” the Hearts manager said. “I had a long chat with him about his responsibilities as a professional and he was good. He tried like a bear when he came on. He was focused.
“My focus was on the team and trying to make sure that he would be able to assist us if he came on, and he did very well.
“The good thing is we only have another month of this nonsense until the transfer window closes. We had the same dealings with Rangers over Jamie Walker. So I kind of expect the same thing again.”
Lafferty is in the final year of his contract and the club might be tempted to sell after an expensive redevelopment of Tynecastle last year, but Levein was being diplomatic when he described Rangers’ bid for a player who netted 19 times last season as “disappointing”.
When pressed on the difference in valuations, he added: “I’m not even going to talk about it, that’s how much I think about it.” MANCHESTER United’s pre-season preparations suffered another setback on their ill-fated US tour as manager Jose Mourinho revealed midfielder Nemanja Matic will miss the start of the Premier League season following his side’s 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Liverpool in Michigan.
Serbia international Matic (below) has undergone surgery on an abdominal injury and Mourinho confirmed: “He is out for the start of the season. He came from the World Cup with the injury and the time he had to rest on holiday was not enough to resolve the problem.
“I don’t know how long he will be out for.”
The injury news added to Mourinho’s pro-season woes and a sense of disarray was compounded when he hit out at a number of his first-team players following the Liverpool defeat.
His frustrations carried into his post-match press conference as he spoke of how disappointed he was with Antonio Valencia still being on holiday, despite only recently naming him his new captain, and how Anthony Martial, who wants to leave the club, should have been back with the squad following the birth of his child.
Mourinho admitted he wants two more players this summer but only expects to get one, as Italian full Matteo Darmian revealed he wants to leave the club with his manager open to the idea of a sale.