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Jose Mourinho: I will not stand in the way of Zlatan Ibrahimovic leaving Manchester United if he wants to go
Jose Mourinho has insisted he would not stand in the way of Zlatan Ibrahimovic leaving Manchester United if the Swedish striker indicates he wants to leave Old Trafford amid a potential move to LA Galaxy.
Reports in the US overnight claimed Ibrahimovic is edging closer to joining the Major League Soccer franchise, who first tried and failed to sign the 36-year-old before he left Paris St-Germain for United in July 2016.
Ibrahimovic returned from a seven-month lay-off with a cruciate knee ligament injury in November but played just 187 minutes of football over seven matches for United before deciding he was not in the right condition to play.
The former Barcelona striker’s contract with United expires at the end of the season and Mourinho refused to rule out the prospect of a transfer, even though he claimed Ibrahimovic had not expressed a wish to leave to him.
The MLS transfer window does not open until Feb. 7 and closes on May 1 so there is not the pressure on the Galaxy to complete a deal before the English winter transfer window closes on Wednesday.
“Zlatan is in last year of his contract,” Mourinho said. “If if if – and he said nothing to it to me – but if if if that is true [a move to LA Galaxy] and Zlatan wants a future in another club in another country we are here to help and create conditions to help, not to make his life difficult. But the last thing Zlatan told me was he wants to recover totally and help the team.
“He told me nothing about it [a potential move]. The first time I read something about this is from you, I read from somewhere or saw on some TV channel, but he never mentioned that to me so I don’t know.”
Mourinho initially expected Ibrahimovic to return at the start of next month at the latest but the Portuguese did not put a timescale on the player’s return today.
“He is working hard to be fit – I don’t say injured because he is not injured - but he’s trying to be ready for the demands of Premier League football,” he said.
Marouane Fellaini is also out of contract at United at the end of the season but Mourinho appears increasingly confident that the Belgium midfielder will sign the offer of a new deal. Fellaini is free to talk to foreign suitors but Mourinho remains hopeful the 30-year-old will stay.
“He’s a very important player for me, he’s a great professional who is giving everything he can to help the team and there is a desire from myself, the board and the player to stay together, that’s our objective,” he said. “Are we going to agree? I don’t know. What I know is myself, the board and the player would like to have a happy end.”
Asked if he was more optimistic about his prospects of keeping Fellaini than he was late last year, Mourinho said: “No – I’m happy with his contribution, he is being a great professional for us. I know he wants to stay with us, he knows I want him and the club wants him but then there is a paper to sign and you only sign the paper when you are happy with what is in the paper so let’s see what happens.”
Mourinho signed a new contract last week that ties him to United until June 2020 with the option of a further year and insists he shares the same ambitions as the board to get the club back to the top.
“The club wants the same as I want, it’s as simple as that,” he said. “Owners, board, they have the same ambitions that I have, they have the same desire to improve at every level to make possible that these ambitions in terms of a sporting achievement we can have sooner or later. We know stability is very important and we make the decision to sign contract with this in mind. We believe in each other, we have common goals.”