Jose Mourinho was ‘annoyed’ at the lack of representation from Manchester United’s board against Valencia.
United fell to a 2-1 defeat against Valencia on Tuesday, as a lamentable XI fell over at their audition to face Liverpool on Sunday.
Mourinho’s side had already secured qualification to the Champions League knock-out stages before the game, but wasted an unlikely opportunity to top the group as Juventus were beaten by Young Boys.
They are therefore almost certain to be handed a much tougher last-16 tie, and Mourinho was ‘annoyed’ that ‘none of the key members of United’s board’ were in attendance at the game.
“In Valencia, only [David] De Gea and [Nemanja] Matic were available to play and didn’t travel,” Jose says. “Apart from that, the players that didn’t travel were not fit to play.” #MUFC
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 14, 2018
Executive co-chairmen Joel and Avram Galzer were both absent, while executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward was in America ‘on business’.
Group managing director Richard Arnold, chief financial officer Cliff Baty, chief operations officer Collette Roche and club secretary Rebecca Britain were at the Mestalla, but the Daily Telegraph quote a source ‘close to Mourinho’ as saying: “What importance have those guys in team matters?”
“Nobody important from the board of directors was there in Valencia,” they add. “We are near the beginning of the transfer window and nobody knows anything.
“They are not working on selling players, they are not working on buying players. And they have 58 scouts and three scouting bosses. It is ridiculous. Jose believes this is not the best way to rule a football club.”
This relates to Mourinho’s apparent ‘anger’ at the club’s lack of transfer activity leading into January. It’s all going well, isn’t it?