Woodward gets transfer shortlist
JOSE MOURINHO has left Manchester United’s transfer plans in the hands of Ed Woodward after securing Champions League football for next season. Mourinho has been linked with another busy summer after spending over £150m after his arrival with the likes of Pogba and Mkhitaryan joined by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who missed the final in Stockholm through injury. And following the win Mourinho revealed that Woodward knows the targets he is looking for.
“Ed (Woodward) has my list, what I want, what I would like for more than two months,” he told BT Sport.
“So now it’s up to him and the owners. But I don’t care about football for now.”
And Mourinho admits that the rollercoaster year was the most difficult of his glittering career. “We totally deserved the win. I am so happy to see the boys with the crutches with the trophy and now I am on holiday,” he added.
“I don’t want to see any international friendlies, I am selfish. I can’t do it. For me, enough is enough. It has been a very hard last few months, we were short of numbers.”
JOSE MOURINHO has described his debut season with Manchester United as the “most difficult” in his 20 years of football management, despite winning three trophies in his first campaign with the club. Having won the Community Shield and the League Cup earlier in the season, Manchester United defeated Ajax 2-0 in the final of the Europa League, as Mourinho won his third piece of silverware in his short time with the club. But in his post-match interview after the cup final triumph, Mourinho claimed that this season has been the most difficult of his career. “Three trophies in one season and the Champions League,” he said after the match. “I am very happy in my most difficult season as a manager. It is the end of You have to control the game, you have to delay the changes, bring in players step by step. I told him yesterday that he could be the key man but he can perfectly be here next season. He is a very important player for us. If he stays next season I’d be very happy.” a very difficult season. But a very very good season.” Manchester United enjoyed just 31% of possession in the Stockholm final, with Ajax dominating the ball but struggling to create any clear-cut chances. Of the Dutch side’s 17 shots on goal, only three were on target. United only managed seven shots on goal, but four of those were on target and two hit the back of the net. And Mourinho was delighted with his side’s pragmatic display, claiming that “poets do not win titles”. “If you are dominant in the air you go long. There are lots of poets in football but poets don’t win many titles,” he said. “We knew where we were better than them and we exploited their weaknesses. “We preferred to reach the Champions League this way than finish fourth, third or second. We got the objective, we are back in the Champions League by winning a title, an important title. The club now has every title in world football. We fought hard for this since the beginning. “We always thought that we could win the Europa League and we are very happy. We played intelligently, we did it in a comfortable way. We were much stronger than them.”
Yesterday in Stockholm could have been a Sliding Doors moment for Manchester United. Three years down the line with United tumbling down the League, we might have wondered what if, how if they had won that Europa League final then they would be back to winning the Premier League by now.
Instead there will be no such Salfordian lament. United are back in the Champions League and they remain a money-making machine.
The arriving players this summer will be A-listers and they have a manager who, in flashes, appears to have got his mojo back.
David De Gea and Wayne Rooney will be among those to leave, each a member of that A-list in their own way but expendable for a club of such resources that still boasts a squad in need of some refreshing. – The independent EUROPA LEAGUE FINAL Ajax Amsterdam 0 Manchester United 2 League. His high-risk gamble paid off. United have hardly thrilled in this tournament, but now they have won it, and their reward is a place in next season’s Champions League. For now they can celebrate their success, but if the rumours are true and Antoine Griezmann does arrive this summer, even more will be demanded of Mourinho’s team next season.
Dolberg struggled to impress
A statistic to summarise Kasper Dolberg’s performance in this European final: his first touch of the ball was from the restart after Ajax conceded to United in the 18th minute. It didn’t get much better for the 19year-old. He went on to touch the ball only 15 more times, and was hauled off mid-way through the second-half. It was a very disappointing performance for the teenager, who has lit up the Eredivisie with 16 goals for Ajax this season.
Experience comes to the fore
Ajax’s inexperience at this level was shown up in ruthless fashion by Manchester United, whose big-name players all delivered when it mattered. Perhaps surprisingly, for most of this