Jose Mourinho has made his peace with Juan Mata and insisted the midfielder can play a role under him at Manchester United, writes from David McDonnell in Shanghai.
Mourinho sold Mata to United for £37.1million in January 2014 when he was at Chelsea and the Spain international’s future looked bleak when his old boss ended up taking over at the Old Trafford giants.
But the Special One claimed there is no problem between them but did warn the 28-year-old is likely to be a fringe player under him at United, just like he was at Chelsea.
“I think since the first day everything is clear between us,” said Mourinho. “There is space for him. He’s a talented player and I don’t promise places to anyone.
“I promise respect and I like him, so if he wants to stay and I think he wants [that]. Until this moment I don’t have one little sign that he wants to leave, so I think he wants to stay and, yes, there is space for him and, yes, I think he can be useful to the club.
“I sold him because he asked for that.
"Nobody in my previous club wanted to sell or push him. No, it was his decision. He was not the first option, but he was playing every game.
“I never left him out of my selection, out of the 18, but he was on the bench a few times and we had a proposal from a big club like United.
“We thought in the club that the proposal was very much acceptable, that it was very good proposal for that period, three years ago.
“In this moment the numbers [fees] are going crazy, so that number that looked very high.
“Nearly three years later it looks very cheap, but he wanted to leave and my philosophy is I don’t want players that want to leave.
"I want players that want to come and want to stay. So we sold Juan to United.”