Jose Mourinho unimpressed with Paul Scholes and Gary Neville

Gareth Southgate has spoken warmly of England’s youngsters ahead of the World Cup and says that they could surprise people along the way to some success in Russia. They have a fair few young, promising players, such as Raheem Sterling, Dele Alli and Marcus Rashford. United’s Rashford has intermittently impressed this season but over the last half-season he seemed to fall away, losing any clinical ability in front of goal, and faffing too much. Time away from England, with England, might need the change he needs.

There’s relatively encouraging news for Manchester United’s upcoming FA Cup tie at the weekend. Romelu Lukaku has been out for a few weeks with an injury to his ankle, but Jose Mourinho thinks that he could be fit enough to start from the bench. The focus could be on Alexis Sanchez, then, and it’s possibly the last chance for Anthony Martial to put in a serious claim to start and make a difference.

Arsene Wenger has described how he and Arsenal came close to signing Cristiano Ronaldo when he was at Sporting Lisbon. Ronaldo joined Manchester United instead, and then he decided he’d rather live in Madrid and get away from the Glazer family. To that, you have to say, fair enough, because it’s a much more pleasant country in many regards.

It seems that Manchester United will lose out to Manchester City for Italian midfielder Jorginho. He’s had an excellent season at Napoli, and will probably end up at The Etihad instead.

Mourinho appears to have levelled some more criticism at Gary Neville and Paul Scholes, amongst other pundits, describing some of them as, ‘weak and frustrated,’ managers who are valued for their abilities as players, and garner more respect than their opinions warrant today. Neville and Scholes, and the whole kings of rock ‘n’ roll, have become unspeakably dull this season.