Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho to give Luke Shaw starting chance on pre-season tour of US
The Red Devils left-back fell down the pecking order under the ex-Chelsea manager at Old Trafford last season
JOSE MOURINHO is ready to give Luke Shaw another chance starting with Manchester United’s pre-season tour of the States.
The United boss still believes Shaw can be the club’s long-term left-back.
But he wants to see signs on this five game tour that he can trust him to deliver.
The signs were not good at the start of the summer break after he was pictured looking out of shape while partying abroad.
However he returned to training early and headed off to Dubai with the club’s strength and conditioning coach Gary Walker to get fit ahead of this tour.
Now he is determined to work his way back into Mourinho’s plans for the coming season.
Shaw, 23, moved to United in a £30million switch from Southampton back in the summer of 2014.
He is now in the final 12 months of his contract.
The club’s Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward will not want that to run out and lose the young full-back on a free.
At the same time there is little point in offering him a big new deal if he is not going to be in Mourinho’s plans.
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That is why this tour is a big one for the club and the player going forward.
Shaw flew out yesterday with the rest of the United squad of players who were not involved in the World Cup to the club’s LA training base.
Mourinho has been openly critical of Shaw in the past not least when he hauled him off at half-time in the FA Cup win over Brighton last March.
Mourinho said: “Every player can play bad but when you see, “Please mister, take me from the pitch”. That is what I thought.’”
The first game of United tour is on Thursday in Phoenix against Club America. It will kick-off at 3am Friday morning English time.