We know Manchester United paid big fees for players and some of them are on loan – Antony is one but another is Jadon Sancho. Is it your understanding Sancho doesn’t want to play for Manchester United anymore, whoever the manager is, because of what happened before?
“I don’t know. I’m just focused on my players and my problems. Sancho is not my problem. I’m really focused on beating Tottenham and using all the players we have to achieve that.”
You haven’t thought about next season and whether you want to bring him back or not?
“No, no. I’m really focused on this season. We have a lot to do and a lot to improve. We need to win games and then we will see next season.”
There was talk of redundancies before. We all come to the club and talk to staff every day and they tell us how poor morale is among them. Lots lost their jobs, friends lost jobs and now they’re fearing for their jobs, the bonuses are cut. Is it a problem for you when morale is so bad among staff? Can you in the first team ignore it or insulate from that environment, or is it an issue when morale is so low within the staff?
“I think it’s really important for us in the first team, coaches and players, to not ignore that. People are losing their jobs so we have to acknowledge that the biggest problem is the football team. We spend the money. We are not winning. We are not in the Champions League so the revenues are not the same. We spent a lot of money in the past and now we have to be careful with the finances so cannot rebuild the team the way we would like. People are losing their jobs and, of course, have that feeling of not being safe in their job. It’s hard to have that feeling so it affects the environment. We cannot ignore it, we acknowledge that problem. I want to say the responsibility is the first team and we have to change that. To change that, the first thing we should do is win at Tottenham. That is a small step to try to help these people, to try to not push prices of tickets higher. We are responsible for that.”