José Mourinho has a poor reputation of bringing young players through and it has already been the main talking point after he was announced as the new Manchester United manager. He has replaced his mentor Louis van Gaal, who was sacked after two inconsistent seasons.
The decision to sack the Dutchman was especially surprising given the timing as it came a few days after he won the FA Cup with United. It was the first trophy won by United since the days of Sir Alex Ferguson. Even though Van Gaal was not successful in terms of trophies, United were able to reap a lot of benefits in terms of players coming through.
The Dutchman promoted a number of players from the youth setup and he lived up to his reputation in this regard. Marcus Rashford and Paddy McNair have been some of the promising youngsters to have made a mark in the first team during the 2015-16 season. Just as Mourinho has been announced as the next manager, there is fear within the dressing room that the good work done by van Gaal in terms of youngsters could be spoiled by Mourinho. The Portuguese prefers buying older and experienced players rather than working with youngsters. McNair, though, revealed that he has received a good luck message from Mourinho ahead of the Euro 2016.
“He sent me a text message wishing me good luck for the tournament. It was nice of him to send that. I did reply saying I was looking forward to playing in the tournament and to working under him. Luckily, the club had sent all the players an email beforehand telling us he was going to text us,” said the Northern Ireland youngster. McNair made 9 appearances in all competitions for United, but he is widely expected to be loaned out in the summer.