DO UNITED STARS HAVE CHARACTER?
Former Chelsea captain John Terry questions the ability of Pogba and Co to work with Jose Mourinho
JOHN Terry has questioned whether Manchester United’s players have big enough characters to thrive under Jose Mourinho.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail’s head of sport, Lee Clayton, Terry revealed how Mourinho ‘embarrassed’ him during a training session at Chelsea in the summer of 2005 after winning the Premier League — but his response was to fight hard to win his manager’s approval.
Terry said Mourinho did the same to all of Chelsea’s biggest stars of that hugely successful era, including Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, and that his style brought out the best from all of them.
Mourinho’s abrasive approach has seen public bust-ups with Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial among others, while United’s poor start to the season has seen them suffer shocking defeats against Brighton and Tottenham.
Terry, however, still thinks United can enjoy success under his mentor — but only if they show him 100 per cent commitment to the cause.
“At every club he has had big characters, and I’m not sure he has that at Manchester United at the moment. At Chelsea, he did,” Terry told Sportsmail.
“He embarrassed me after one pre-season, after we had won a league title. He stopped the training session, came in, threw down his pad.
“If you keep giving the ball away, I will go and buy someone for £50million (RM268 million).”
“I was thinking at the time, I played every game for you last season! And now you’re trying to humiliate me! I didn’t understand why he was doing that, but my instinct was to run and give everything; flying into tackles, winning the ball.
“We made eye contact and he grinned. He knew exactly what he was doing — to get the best out of all of us. I have seen him do the same to Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole, Michael Ballack, all of whom are big personalities in the dressing room.