Antonio Valencia has issued an apology after the Manchester United captain liked an Instagram post calling for Jose Mourinho to be sacked.
Valencia’s relationship with Mourinho has become strained after the defender was rebuked for failing to attend United’s Carabao Cup defeat by Derby County last week, after which he was dropped for Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at West Ham.
The Ecuadorian was restored to the starting line-up for Tuesday’s dismal 0-0 draw against Valencia in the Champions League. After the game, Valencia liked a post by “teamvalencia25” which said Mourinho had made watching United “a punishment now” and also called for the manager “to go”.
But Valencia has claimed he did not read the Instagram message properly before liking it and insisted he remained behind Mourinho, even if the incident was another reflection of the chaos engulfing United at the moment.
“Yesterday, I liked a post on Instagram without reading the text that accompanied the picture,” he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
“These are not my views and I apologise for this. I am fully supportive of the manager and my team-mates. We are all giving our everything to improve the results.”
The message from teamvalencia25 had read: “I’m not even surprised about the outcome of this game. I always look forward to our games but recently Mourinho has made watching us a punishment now. Something needs to change. It’s time for Mourinho to go.”
“The decision is up to the manager and you’ve got to respect it. I can say that in the dressing room, the guys are calm and everyone is working hard every day with the right attitude.
“People are saying things because we’ve not necessarily got results, but everything is good, there’s not a problem. Everything will calm down when we get some wins. We are 100 per cent behind the manager.”