Memphis Depay buy back clause: Winger offered £35m route back to Man Utd by Jose Mourinho after Lyon move
Sponsored by
JOSE MOURINHO has left the door open for Memphis to return to Manchester United.
The Dutch winger left the club for French title chasers Lyon this week for £21.7million.
But United have a £35million first option on buying him back if he proves a success.
Keep up to date with ALL the Manchester United news, gossip and transfers on our club page plus fixtures, results and live match commentary
Mourinho said: "We wish he plays well at Lyon and comes back because everyone here likes him.
“Potentially he is still a very good player.
“Mr Van Gaal and Manchester United did well to buy him.
“He knew him from the national team. He was very young in the World Cup and had flashes of top quality.
“He did not succeed in the 18 months he was here but I think it is very important for the club to keep control of his talent."
Mourinho says he had to let Memphis go because he was simply overloaded in his left flank position.
The United boss said: “Because of his position it was more difficult to have chances.
“We have Lingard, Ashley Yound, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and even Wayne Rooney who could sometimes play out on the left.”
Related stories
Despite claiming he did not want either Memphis or Morgan Schneiderlin, who signed for Everton, to move this week he said he simply could not stand in their way once the offer was right.
He said: “If players are not totally happy here and are not getting the minutes it is not human to not let them go when the offer is correct.”
United travel to Stoke today on a 16 game unbeaten run but with no intention of protecting that for it’s own sake.
Mourinho said: “I do not worry about the unbeaten run. I will not play a match to try and be unbeaten and stretch the run to 18 or 20 games.
“We want to win matches and try to win matches with risk. If we lose, we lose.”