Another berserk week in the history of Manchester United.
Paul Pogba's agent, Mino Raiola, takes a public dig at Paul Scholes over Scholes' public dig at Pogba's (thinly-veiled) public dig at Jose Mourinho; in response to murmurings of an anti-Ed Woodward banner to be flown over Old Trafford on Monday night, United's executive vice-chairman is given a hagiography in The Guardian around the time that fans realised that it would be too dark to fly the banner on Monday night; Jose Mourinho gives a sullen press conference lasting only four minutes in which he answers only 13 questions.
Stories and sideshows seem to inflame the club every day, and ahead of Monday's game with Spurs, there's another: Eric Bailly has been affronted by criticism from Gary Neville.
Speaking on Sky after the Brighton debacle, Neville admitted that centre-backs Bailly and Victor Lindelof weren't good enough if United had ambitions to win the title.
Speaking to the Mirror, Bailly said that negative comments from Neville did not help the younger players in the team.
I think the criticism was a bit harsh, particularly from people who have played the game and have probably made mistakes themselves during their career.
As young players, we need support from these people. If we got more support from these people, that can help us. But negative comments all of the time doesn’t help the young players or the team.
It was not just one individual performance on Sunday. It was the whole team that struggled. But it was just one battle lost, not the whole war.
If there is a glimmer of hope for United fans at the end of an exhausting week, Jose Mourinho has proved a master at making fruit from such siege situations in the past. He even did so when Spurs arrived at Old Trafford last season.
Can he repeat the trick?
[Mirror]
