Manchester United’s makeover under Jose Mourinho seems to be far from over. In fact, by the looks of it, things have just started. Jose Mourinho splashed the cash in the summer immediately upon his arrival, securing the signature of Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Eric Bailly and the free signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. While all of them seem to have settled now, the start wasn’t the best.
Pogba and Mkhitaryan put in extremely jittery displays and were heavily criticised. Ibrahimovic was an exception and other than a dull period in the middle, things have been going smoothly for him. Bailly started off well but a subsequent injury and then the AFCON has put his development at United on hold right now.
These players will most likely feature heavily in the coming seasons for Manchester United and according to reports, Jose Mourinho wants the bombarding Tottenham Hotspur duo of Danny Rose and Kyle Walker to join them in his Old Trafford revolution. Tottenham’s impressive form has not gone unnoticed and along with United, their fierce cross-town rivals Manchester City are also supposedly in for the pair.
Jose Mourinho’s issues with his present fullbacks other than Antonio Valencia are well-documented and Walker would be an upgrade on whatever options he has at his disposal.
Walker joined boyhood club Sheffield United at the age of seven after being recommended by Football Unites, Racism Divides and progressed through the ranks to become a regular fixture in the reserves by 2008. He went on loan to Northampton Town before joining back with his parent club in a month’s time.
On 22 July 2009, Walker left Sheffield United to join Tottenham Hotspur along with fellow defender Kyle Naughton for a combined fee of £9m, but was loaned back to the Yorkshire club for the duration of the 2009–10 season as part of the deal. He had further loan spells at QPR and Aston Villa before finally breaking into the first team at Spurs.
Jose Mourinho has looked unconvinced by Darmian and has used him in a left-back position instead of his natural right side. With Fosu-Mensah seemingly a future prospect whose versatile nature might even render him a utility man more than a regular under someone like Mourinho. Valencia has been good this season and has looked surprisingly strong defensively and has used his physique in attacking areas as well. But his crossing and his pace have been an issue and on both counts, he is inferior to Walker.
Daniel Levy will unlikely sanction a sale, that too to a direct rival but United have been known to spend some eye-watering funds on their targets and if Mourinho gets serious regarding this, this could be worthy watching out for.
