Manchester United vs Middlesbrough - Mourinho rules out loan departures at United

Posted Saturday, December 31, 2016 by PA

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has stated young goalkeeper Sam Johnstone will be the only player he will allow to depart Old Trafford on loan next month.

Morgan Schneiderlin, Memphis Depay and Anthony Martial are among those on the fringes of Mourinho's team who have been linked with loan switches yet the Portuguese is only prepared to sanction a temporary deal for Johnstone.

The 23-year-old is yet to make a senior appearance for United and, with Sergio Romero backing up David de Gea, he is free to gain experience elsewhere, with Stoke, Sunderland and Aston Villa possible destinations.

"Sam Johnstone is the only player that I will allow to go on loan because he doesn't play one single minute, he needs to play," Mourinho said.

"We have a young goalkeeper in Joel (Pereira), a goalkeeper that played many minutes in the past six months in the Portuguese Premier League and now it's time for Sam to play six months.

"That's the only loan move that we are going to do."

Permanent departures do not appear imminent either, with United yet to receive an offer that would persuade them to cash in.

And that means West Brom, who last week lodged a bid for Schneiderlin, will likely have to increase their offer to land the French midfielder.

"Apart from that, I don't want to sell players - the club, the board are totally with me," Mourinho added.

"But, as I said before, if a player is not having lots of minutes, and if a player really wants to leave, we have no right to stop the player to leave, if the conditions are our conditions, and until this moment we have not received one single offer that we are going to accept."

United are on a four-game winning streak in the Premier League and conclude 2016 with Middlesbrough's visit to Old Trafford on New Year's Eve.

It will see Mourinho reunited with his former Real Madrid assistant and coaching pupil Aitor Karanka, whom he mentored before the Spaniard branched off on his own to take charge of Boro.

"He's my friend, he's a real friend," Mourinho said of their relationship.

"I always want him to win, he always wants me to win. Tomorrow is the first time where I want to win and he wants to win. That's football.

"Sometimes, it's brothers against brothers, father against a son, father manages against a son as a player and that has to be even more difficult. For 90 minutes, I want to win and he wants to win and that's it."

Wayne Rooney will once again be absent due to a thigh strain and while Luke Shaw is back in training, Mourinho does not believe he is fit enough to start due to his groin problem.

Meanwhile, Karanka has warned his players not to be fooled into believing they can succeed at Manchester United just by shackling superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The 35-year-old Sweden international has taken to life at Old Trafford with his usual self-confidence and richly rewarded Mourinho with 17 goals to date, 12 of them in the Premier League.

Karanka knows his side will have to keep a firm grip of Ibrahimovic if they are to emerge from their trip across the Pennines with anything to show for their efforts.

However, he is also acutely aware that the larger-than-life United frontman is far from the Red Devils' only threat.

He said: "He is one of the best players in the world. He is still young even when he is 30-and-I-don't-know-how-many-more. He is a big reference for them, he's a player I know Jose likes a lot.

"But behind Ibrahimovic, there is [Paul] Pogba and [Ander] Herrera and [Juan] Mata and a lot of players. Speaking about Jose's team, it's like here [Boro]: it's about the team.

"Manchester United are playing well, they are organised and they have amazing players. But again, they are not just one or two or three. They have a lot of good players, but above everything is the team."

Boro will be without suspended defender Antonio Barragan and injured winger Viktor Fischer, but their number could be boosted within days with the club understood to be in talks with Aston Villa over striker Rudy Gestede, although Karanka was giving nothing away.

He said with a smile: "The market is open on January 1 or 2, so for now, it's Manchester United."