Nemanja Matic and Eric Dier go head to head at Old Trafford in the nest 24 hours — with Jose Mourinho claiming he signed the one he really wanted.

Manchester United boss Mourinho has been accused of “tapping up” Dier in the Old Trafford tunnel last season by Tottenham opposite number Mauricio Pochettino.

Pochettino wrote in book Brave New World , his diary of last season, that the England star’s form was affected by a discussion he had with Mourinho following Spurs 1-0 defeat in Manchester last December.

The Tottenham manager suspected the chat was the prelude to a £50million Red Devils bid which came in for England international during the summer.

Spurs refused to sell Dier after he was subject to some Mourinho buttering-up... (
Image:
Tottenham Hotspur/Getty)
...so the Special One instead raided Chelsea for a reunion with Matic (
Image:
Getty)

It was rejected, and instead United snapped up Serbia international Matic from Mourinho’s former club Chelsea to play as a defensive midfielder.

Before Spurs' Saturday lunchtime visit , Mourinho said: “I have the player that I want to have (Matic). Probably I have the player I didn’t think it was possible to have... but we got the player I really wanted.”

On Pochettino’s accusation about Dier, he added: “No. I don’t know if it is Mauricio’s words or it is his ghost writer’s, I really don’t know.

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“What I do know is that during the summer, before every season, he calls me and I call Mauricio and we ask about each other’s players to see if they are or not available.

“I don’t know why I should speak to Dier on a football match day in the tunnel? Maybe it is to try and sell books. Maybe his ghost writer wants to make some money.”

Mourinho also brushed off Luke Shaw ’s ‘love in’ with Pochettino — the man who gave him his chance when they were both at Southampton.

Shaw revealed: “He (Pochettino) used to call me his son. I do hope that I can play for him one day. And I think he really wants me to play under him again.”

Asked if this praise of an opposition manager would count against him as he battles to make an impact at Old Trafford Mourinho replied: “I would be very disappointed if his words were any different.

“I am always disappointed with a player when the new manager becomes the best and the old manager becomes very bad. Football is full of examples of a lack of character. Luke Shaw was just honest.

“The manager that helped him come to the first team, the manager that helped him develop in the best moment of his career, is the manager he doesn’t forget — a manager he likes a lot, a manager that maybe one day he would like to be reunited again.

“So for me the perfect words that show Luke Shaw’s character in relation to the people he was happy with.

“He has a future here but the situation is not easy because he comes from injury after injury after injury.

“He needs two, three, four, five or six matches in a row to play, to make mistakes, to get into condition, to get match fitness and I cannot give him that.”

Mourinho maintains the lack of hunger which blighted United’s shock 2-1 defeat at promoted Huddersfield last weekend was a one-off:

“To lose again, I think it is going to happen. But in terms of the attitude that we didn’t like and knowing the players and what good people they are, I believe it was an isolated case.”

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