Going nowhere! Mourinho has Woodward backing

Cape Town - Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward will not sack manager Jose Mourinho despite their dismal start in the Premier League.

According to Telegraph website, Woodward has backed the manager to turn things around after suffering two defeats in three games, a first for the club since 1992.

However, what transpired after the Tottenham Hotspur's 3-0 loss in the post-match press conference had the football fraternity thinking that the Portuguese managers days are numbered at Old Trafford.

Talking to reporters, Mourinho accused the press of trying to twist their facts about the game and turn a good performance into a bad one.

Mourinho clearly lost his patience with the journalists, and proceeded to go on an angry rant about his management record as he got up and left the room.

Holding up three fingers he asked: "Do you know what was the result? 3-0. Do you know what this means? 3-0 but also means three Premierships and I won more Premierships alone than the other 19 managers together.

"Three for me and two for them two. So respect man, respect, respect, respect."

The defeat on Monday left United in 13th place with Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and Spurs dominating the top half of the table. Woodward is said to have made a rare appearance in United's dressing room after the match and had a 'constructive conversation' with Mourinho on Tuesday.

Many are calling for Mourinho to be sacked but following a contract extension in January, the manager was hoping to bring in four to five new signings to increase United's chances of fighting for the Premier League crown.

"I would like two more players. I don't think I'm going to have two. I think it's possible I'm going to have one," said Mourinho after having already secured the services of Fred (midfielder), Diogo Dalot (right-back) and goalkeeper Lee Grant.

"I gave my club a list of five names a few months ago. I wait to see if it's possible to have one of these players. If it’s possible, it’s good. If not then we keep fighting and working and believing in the players that we have."

However, Woodward failed to deliver on the managers final query and Mourinho changed his tone during the final stretch of the pre-season campaign.

"This is not our team. We started the game with almost half of the players who are not even going to belong to our squad on August 9. The majority of the players that played are not going to play - some of them are not even going to belong to the squad," said the manager after their 4-1 defeat against Liverpool. 

"This is not our squad. Reinforcements, you mean players that I would like to buy, that’s another thing, but this is not my squad. This is not even half my squad, or 30% of it. So don’t look to this."

Mourinho was adamant that before the close of the Premier League transfer window (August 9) that the club should sign more players.

The 53-year-old was keen to sign either Toby Alderweireld from Tottenham or Harry Maguire of Leicester City but Woodward ruled against the decision to bring in another defender with Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelof and Marcos Rojo already on United's books.

The manager will have to make do with what he has at his disposal until the January transfer window, and whether United are willing to spend again remains unknown, but can Mourinho keep his job until then?

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— Sport24News (@Sport24news) August 29, 2018