Mourinho has endured a difficult summer in the transfer market. Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says the club have a meticulous approach when it comes to identifying clubs to send prospective loan players. The 19-time Premier League champions are among a raft of clubs who use the transfer window to give young players and those on the fringes of the senior side regular first team opportunities. Six players left United during the summer transfer window, while others could follow should they opt to go abroad as they seek to ramp-up their football education.
Dean Henderson, Matty Willock, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Joel Pereira and Axel Tuanzebe all departed Old Trafford, while Tim Fosu-Mensah has joined Fulham for the rest of the season on deadline day. Borthwick-Jackson was among those players to fall foul of the system last term, joining Leeds United where he played a peripheral role, while striker James Wilson made four Championship starts in six months at Sheffield United. But Mourinho insists great attention is paid to finding potential clubs and hopes this season proves fruitful for those players send out on loan.
Borthwick-Jackson will hope his spell at Scunthorpe United can be an improvement on his time with Leeds United. ‘They have to play, that’s the most important thing,’ the Portuguese coach told MUTV. ‘A good loan is a loan to play. Sometimes players and their entourage, they make mistakes in the way they choose a club to be loaned. ‘They just have to play – it doesn’t matter if that team plays to be promoted, plays to not be relegated, plays in England, plays outside of England – they have to play and that’s the most important thing.
‘Because for playing bits, playing minutes, to be on the bench, to be a squad player, they can be here.’ With the transfer windows across Europe yet to close, several other United players could yet depart for the duration of the season. Clubs from the English Football League are also eligible to loan players from the Premier League, but only on the proviso the agreements are with a view to a permanent move.
