England defender Luke Shaw has urged his former manager Jose Mourinho to “move on” and stop the relentless criticism of him.
Mourinho first began singling out and publicly criticising Shaw when he took over as manager of Manchester United in 2016 and the left-back was returning to fitness from a horrific leg break that almost ended his career.
During Mourinho’s two-and-a-half years as United manager, Shaw played sporadically and had to contend with his manager constantly picking on him during press conferences.
Over the years, the Portuguese continued to find fault with his former player during stints as a Sky Sports pundit. And it appears he is still not able to let his resentment of Shaw go, last week picking out the left-back’s set-pieces for England against the Czech Republic and describing him as “very poor on the corner” and that “the service was dramatically bad”.
“There is no hiding that we didn’t get on,” Shaw said. “I think he was a brilliant manager but, you know, the past is the past. It is time to move on. I am trying to move on but, obviously, he can’t.
“He continuously talks about me, which I find quite strange. Even some of the lads have said ‘what’s his problem?’ and ‘why does he keep talking?’ He just needs to move on. Hopefully he can find his peace with that and stop worrying about me. Clearly I am in his head a lot and he clearly thinks about me a lot.”
Mourinho’s latest digs – which he shared as a pundit for TalkSport – were even more surprising given that they came after England had kept three clean sheets in their opening three Euro 2020 games to top their group and set up a last-16 tie against Germany. Shaw played in two of those games and is expected to start on Tuesday.
He was widely praised for his performance against the Czechs by most pundits except Mourinho. And England manager Gareth Southgate revealed afterwards that Mason Mount and Phil Foden had been the intended set-piece takers during training but had to be changed at the last minute as he changed his plans.
“I don’t really understand it, to be honest,” Shaw said. “I don’t know why he [Mourinho] is still going on and wanting to point at me. I don’t feel like the set-pieces were as bad as he was saying. I might have done one in the second half, a corner, that didn’t get over the first man. But that was one out of three. The other two or three, I don’t think, were as ‘dramatically bad’ as he says.
“Look, he has got to do his job. He has got his opinion. I am used to him saying negative stuff about me now, so I just pass it by. I leave it be, I ignore it. I just focus on what the coaching staff say here, what Gareth says and that’s that, really.”
Shaw says that he is now able to laugh at the criticism and explained that even during that difficult period under Mourinho he knew everyone at his club, including executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, supported him.
“I don’t think any of you realise the two or three years I had with him [Mourinho] and how bad it was then, what it was like then,” Shaw said.
“What he says now is nothing compared to how it used to be. I am being totally honest. I am so past it now. I have grown up a lot. The three years I had with him, I learnt a lot. I find it easy to ignore him now and even laugh about it. But it’s better just to ignore it. You can laugh about it, but it’s better just to ignore it and move on with my life.”
More from i on Euro 2020
- England aren’t ‘rubbish’ and Southgate isn’t a ‘fraud’ – we just need a bit of patience
- What the Premier League could learn from Euro 2020’s controversy-free referees
- The football nomad who became a hero for his role in saving Eriksen’s life
- How Ronaldo’s Coca-Cola stunt could change the face of football sponsorship
- How to watch every Euro 2020 match on TV and online in the UK
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2UIm606
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