Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho has issued a very fierce warning to his players ahead of the kickoff of the new Premier League season next month.
According to reports from UK, the newly-appointed Portuguese tactician has told players to “Make my 24 or you’ll be out with the kids”.
Reports from Old Trafford say that Mourinho intends to operate with a core first-team group of just 24 players and will allow anyone outside that to leave the club or train with the under 21s.
At a meeting on Tuesday, Mourinho explained he planned to have 24 players as his first-teamers and everyone else would have to decide if they wanted to leave, either permanently or on loan, or stay and train with the under 21s.
Mourinho, who used 22 players when he clinched the Premier League title at Chelsea two seasons ago, will stick to the same principle at Old Trafford that a small, tight-knit group is preferable to a bloated squad with players frustrated at a lack of game-time.
The new United manager has already made his strategy clear to the players who were not at Euro 2016 and have returned to pre-season training.
The Red Devils used 33 players in the Premier League under Louis van Gaal last season and even allowing for injuries, Mourinho believes that is far too many to encourage organisation and team spirit.
Premier League clubs are allowed to name a 25-man squads plus under 21s players but Mourinho doesn’t want that many even though United will also have a Europa League campaign to cope with.
The atmosphere at United’s training ground in Mourinho’s first week has been described as business-like with less chit-chat off the training pitch with the Portuguese manager even compared to Van Gaal.
The first casualties of his tunnel vision approach appear to be young defenders Guillermo Varela and Tyler Blackett, who have already been sent to train with the reserves despite United’s first-team squad currently being short of numbers until Wayne Rooney, Chris Smalling, Anthony Martial, Maroune Fellaini, Marcus Rashford, Matteo Darmian, Morgan Schneiderlin return from post-European Championship holidays, or wedding in the case of Bastian Schweinsteiger.
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