Shaw tells why he turned Jose down

– Luke Shaw (left) has cleared the air with Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho over remarks the Portuguese made concerning the leftback’s high wage demands ahead of a prospective transfer to west London when he was at Chelsea.

The 21-year-old rejected a chance to join Chelsea in favour of a switch to United in 2014 with Mourinho saying at the time Shaw would have “killed” the stability of the dressing-room if he had paid “that much to a 19-year-old kid”.

“We spoke about it. He said it to me at first. I was just going to leave it, but he had a joke about it. There are no hard feelings,” he said.

“I just thought I had a better chance of playing at United (than at Chelsea). Patrice Evra was leaving (United), whereas Chelsea had

London

a solid back four that I knew Jose liked.

“So even though Chelsea were much closer to my home, I felt United were the better choice. I never focused on the money.”

Shaw, who suffered a double leg fracture last year, has started the season strongly, with his performances meriting a call-up to manager Sam Allardyce’s England squad for tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier against Slovakia.

Shaw also said he was relishing the battle with Tottenham Hotspur defender Danny Rose for the England starting role.

“There have been a lot of good English leftbacks who have emerged over the past year, especially Danny Rose, who was the best in the league last season.” – Reuters