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Jose Mourinho banks on Zlatan Ibrahimovic returning to play for Manchester United next season
Jose Mourinho appears to be banking on Zlatan Ibrahimovic returning to play for Manchester United during the second half of next season.
And the United manager – who is hoping for a breakthrough in the club’s pursuit of Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic over the next week – said he expects his team to be populated with academy graduates over the next few years.
United released Ibrahimovic at the end of last month following a cruciate knee ligament injury that Mourinho expects to keep the Swede out of action until December.
But there is a growing expectation that Ibrahimovic, who has held talks with LA Galaxy and new franchise LA FC in the MLS, could sign a new short-term deal with United and be back playing for the club at Christmas or early in the new year.
Mourinho admitted earlier this month it was an option and he dropped another big hint this week when he said the club committed £75 million to sign Romelu Lukaku from Everton in part because they could ill afford to be without a target man upfront for the first half of next season.
It also appears that Lukaku asked Ibrahimovic for permission to wear the No 9 shirt that the Swede adorned last term in anticipation of the 35-year-old returning.
“We spent big money on a striker because, with strikers, you either spend [big] or you don't get,” Mourinho said. “And we spent because of what happened to Zlatan and we cannot allow ourselves to be without an important, strong striker for the first six months of the season.”
Chelsea are increasingly resigned to losing Matic to United after the Serbia midfielder, who was left out of the club’s tour squad, signalled his desire to play under Mourinho again rather than move to Juventus. United hope Matic’s determination to move will help to keep the price down with the club reluctant to pay £50 million.
Mourinho has had a reputation at previous clubs for not bringing young players through but the United manager is confident the likes of Andreas Pereira, Scott McTominay and Demetri Mitchell will establish themselves in his first team squad along with Axel Tuanzebe and Timothy Fosu-Mensah. Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard also came through United’s academy.
“The reputation is the reputation,” Mourinho said. “But the other day I found myself in the tunnel before the Real Madrid game [against United in Santa Clara] and in the first half more than half the Real team, which is their first team because they were only missing Ronaldo and [Sergio] Ramos, started with me and had debuts with me.
“They came into the first team with me, they trained with me, some when they were 15 and 16 years old. Nacho, Casemiro, [Dani] Carvajal, [Alvaro] Morata. Morata was not there, Marcello was [21]. Almost all of them. So probably in a few years Man United will also have half a dozen of these kids (in the team). I think Scott and Demetri are also kids to have a future in the club and Andreas Pereira is back. So when the kids are good and have potential, there is no problem.”