Jose Mourinho: Wayne Rooney is going nowhere
The England skipper, who turned 31 on Monday, has found himself out of the United and England sides, and reports this week suggested Mourinho had told Rooney he needs to move if he wants regular first-team football.
The United boss said that was “not true at all” and underlined his desire to keep Rooney at Old Trafford for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t know,” Mourinho said when asked how long Rooney can play on. “With (his age being) 31, I know he can. I know he can, I know he’s a top player, I know he can play at the top level.
“I cannot make this kind of mental exercise of what is going to happen at 32, 3, 4, 5. I can’t say that. What I can say is he’s a very good player, he’s a very important player for us, he’s going nowhere. We like him, he likes us. He is not happy because in the last matches he was on the bench, but I think he’s even unhappier when he’s not on the bench because he’s been injured and has to stay in the stands. There is no problems at all.”
Mourinho expressed his frustration at recent stories in the media about that matter and others, before growing frustrated as questions continued about Rooney.
“He’s my captain,” the United boss said. “He is the team captain. He behaves like that. In all my career I had just a couple of players that didn’t want to play and sometimes they want to hide when things got hotter.
“Apart from that, every player wants to play and I don’t know players that are happy when they don’t play.
“They are always unhappy when they don’t play. Thanks for that because that is exactly the way I want it.”
Rooney is back in contention for today’s home game with Burnley after recovering from injury, with the scrutiny sure to continue at time the player himself admits is a “difficult period”.
“I think he is a human being like everybody else,” said Mourinho. “He has family, like everybody else. He has kids, the oldest one in an age where he can read, he can feel, he can get that, so if he is affected by that it’s just the human nature.
“The human nature that your industry doesn’t think about, but I think he’s a big boy, he’s a big character, and he copes with the situation.”
Mourinho accepts he must restore a winning mentality to United. The club no longer boasts leaders of the calibre of Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, or Bryan Robson, but Jose Mourinho believes replicating their winning mentality is key to bringing success back to Old Trafford.
“In three months it is not so easy to change the most difficult thing to change, which are personalities,” the Portuguese said.
The style of play, even with mistakes, you can change here and there. But at the psychological level it takes more time, especially if you go against the nature of some of the personalities when you don’t have a very experienced squad where everybody knows how to win, what is needed to win, that consistency level you must have psychologically to cope with that routine of victories.
“Because the routine of victories is very difficult to have and to cope with. It’s easier than the routine of defeats, but it is difficult also to cope with the routine of victories.
“Keeping that consistency and that’s the most difficult time of the process, so we need time. It is always the same story. Some clubs have all the time they want, some managers have all the time they want.
“And some other clubs you want immediately success and with some other managers it’s exactly the same.
“But that’s Man United and that’s Jose Mourinho. No problem.”
United are on track in the Europa League and EFL Cup thanks to wins against Fenerbahce and Manchester City. Michael Carrick started both those matches and has helped United to victory in all five of his appearances this term, with the 35-year-old playing an important role despite his limited playing time.
“It’s one thing to be 25, another thing to be 35,” said Mourinho. “That’s the logic of things, but the only thing I can say is that he’s phenomenal. No doubt about it.
“Do I have to manage (his time)? I think I have to. I cannot expect from Michael what I can expect from (Marcus) Rashford or (Ander) Herrera in terms of playing three, four, five, seven consecutive matches.
“When he is on the pitch, he gives us important things.”
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