Sanjeevani Dhakal
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho announced his plans to sign four new players in the squad at the start of the transfer window and the Red Devils manager completed his signing beforehand without leaving any last minute signing for the dead line day.
The Portuguese manager signed Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba this summer. The four signings he had planned at the start of the Transfer Window although United did get linked with numerous players through the summer.
United also cut lose the player whom they deemed surplus to requirement at the Old Trafford the likes of Joel Pereira who is out on loan and James Weir who left the club permanently.
The 20-year-old goalkeeper, who was part of Portugal’s Olympic squad, is leaving Old Trafford for the second time on a temporary basis after representing Rochdale last term.
Pereira was on the bench for the first team’s Europa League win over Midtjylland in February and deputised for James Weir as Under-21s captain when the young Reds clinched the title at Tottenham’s White Hart Lane in May.
Weir, who turned 21 on 4 August, was also an unused first-team substitute on seven occasions under Louis van Gaal while impressing on a regular basis in Warren Joyce’s title-winning Under-21s side. The creative player captained the young Reds and ended the campaign with six goals.
Wednesday night’s transfer means Weir has followed his United Under-21s colleague Will Keane in making a permanent switch to Hull, the club where former Reds coach Mike Phelan is the caretaker manager.
Further Bastian Schweinsteiger is set to stay at United and fight for his place in the first team. On the other hand, United are hoping that Henrikh Mkhitaryan recovers ahead of the Manchester Derby. The United midfielder was subbed off in Armenia’s 3-0 defeat to the Czech Republic on Wednesday.
Mkhitaryan was involved in a collision with Marek Sukhy and was withdrawn in the first half of the match.
Regarding the international break, Mourinho told MUTV: ‘We keep eight outfield players and Sam Johnstone as the goalkeeper.
‘We are going to lose the others and we don’t know the way they train, the way they recover, the life they are going to have with their national teams.’
