Manchester United round-up: Arsenal star monitored; Mourinho reacts to cup defeat; Bailly could have signed for rivals

Add as preferred source on Google

In some shock news, it has been reported that Manchester United are considering a move for Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil and are tracking his ongoing contract talks with the Gunners. Evening Standard say he is demanding £290,000 per week, a demand which Football.London claim the Red Devils would be prepared to meet.

Embed from Getty Images

The German previously played for Jose Mourinho at Manchester United and may be growing frustrated with the lack of ambition at the Emirates, with Arsene Wenger’s side once again struggling to compete for titles, with a move to Manchester perhaps not as unlikely as it may seem.

Jose Mourinho has spoken out after the club were beaten and knocked out of the FA Cup by a N’Golo Kante goal for Chelsea. The manager told the media, as reported by the club website:

“I want to say that I’m really proud of my players, I’m really proud of Manchester United fans. We have a very important match on Thursday and I want to rest a little bit to try to prepare the team as best we can for the Thursday match and that’s the most important thing… I think we all watched the match until the red card. After the red card, then we can compare the decisions of these two yellow cards, in this case the second yellow card with ones that were not given.”

Embed from Getty Images

A red card for Ander Herrera turned the game and made life very difficult for the Red Devils, who were forced to adopt more defensive tactics in an attempt to see out the game which they failed to do.

One man who watched on from the bench was centre-back Eric Bailly, who has revealed that he could have joined the blue half of the city as he revealed, as quoted by the Sun:

“Manchester City were interested in me, but it was United who contacted me directly – in the form of Jose Mourinho himself. He is one of the best managers in the world, he wanted me to join United and I accepted. I was at a good Spanish club in Villarreal, but when a team as prestigious as Manchester United makes you an offer it is hard to say no. That is despite the fact I had not planned to leave Villarreal so soon, and I knew I would get less playing time at United. But I knew that I would improve under a coach like Mourinho, and with teammates such as Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Juan Mata.”

Embed from Getty Images

Bailly has been a hit at Old Trafford and was a mainstay in the side before a knee injury at Chelsea in October so will be hoping to work his way back into the team in the near future.

Featured Image: All rights reserved by Thuy Tran Thanh.