No Mour slip ups
> Mourinho must improve at Man Utd or risk damaging his reputation says Souness
LEICESTER CITY REAL MADRID attacking midfielder James Rodriguez, 25, is a target for Manchester United, but could stay at the Spanish club if forward Ronaldo leaves.
TURKISH BARCELONA are in talks to sign former Tottenham midfielder Paulinho, 28, from Chinese c l u b Guangzhou Eve r - grande.
PAULINHO MANCHESTER CITY defender Aleksandar Kolarov, 31, wants to return to former club Lazio in the future.
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MANCHESTER UNITED boss Jose Mourinho must mount a Premier League title challenge or risk destroying his reputation, according to Graeme Souness.
Mourinho has enjoyed a trophyladen managerial career, but struggled to live up to his reputation at Old Trafford last season.
United did win three trophies, including the Europa League, which helped the club secure Champions League football for next season.
But the club never came close to mounting a Premier League title challenge with the Red Devils finishing in an underwhelming sixth place.
And Souness insists “The Special One” must turn things around if he is to bring the glory days back to the club.
He also questioned Pep Guardiola at Manchester City and reckons that they are both under huge pressure to live up to their billing as managerial greats.
“We all thought it would be Guardiola vs Mourinho doing battle at the top of the table last season, but City and United never even came close to getting into the title mix,” Souness said.
“Now they will be under pressure like never before because they are working for owners who expect to be challenging for the title.
“The record these two guys have confirms they are great managers, but they have probably taken on the biggest challenges of their career in these two jobs and they have to respond to the
task. “For City to finish as far behind Chelsea as they did was a surprise because they were great in the opening games of the season and then faded badly.
“As for United, they did well in the lesser cup competitions, but United expect to be in the top four of the Premier League and all we got from Mourinho for most of the season was moaning and groaning and excuses.
“Manchester United is a massive football club and they have resources to make sure they can have no excuses if they pick up a few injuries or have a lot of games.
“If you want to win trophies and play in lots of competitions, then you are going to have a lot of games at the end of the season, which should be seen as a good thing.”
Sky Sports pundit Souness also questioned whether Jose Mourinho was even the right man for the job at Manchester United.
“I didn’t think Mourinho was right for United and I said that from day one,” Souness told Yahoo Sport.
“Because Guardiola was coming in an Manchester City, the people making decisions at Old Trafford felt compelled to go and get a big name manager and they ended up with Jose. “A big concern for me that their best player for most of last season was a 35-year-old in Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with 35-year-old Michael Carrick also one of the top performers.
“Mourinho is used to winning league titles and finishing where he did last season in the Premier League will not be acceptable, but it won’t be easy to put it right.” – Express Newspapers