Patrick Rees
Luke Shaw’s agent Jonathan Barnett has cleared off the smoke regarding his client’s future at Old Trafford by quoting that he won’t be leaving the club anytime soon as the Devils love him there.
Mourinho rates the former Southampton youngster highly and that fact that he heavily pursued him during his time at Chelsea solely supports the statement. Shaw, on his part, has failed to live upto the billing and some of the credit for his failure, goes to his constant injury woes.
The 22-year-old English international first suffered a horrific leg-break injury in United’s Champions League tie against PSV and he never really recovered since then. Even though he has shown some flashes of his usual self, he has become a liability when it comes to injuries. Take last season for instance, Shaw only managed 11 Premier League appearances and at this moment as well, he is nursing an injury.
All this fueled up the rumours that Shaw might well leave United in search of first team football and also to retain his England national team spot. Shaw was strongly linked with a move away from Manchester United and a report from M.E.N even claimed that United are looking out for a possibility of a potential swap deal which would see Tottenham’s Danny Rose travelling to Manchester, while Shaw will move the other way round.
This, however, has been denied by Barnett, who also happens to be the agent of Manchester United’s long-term target, Gareth Bale. While talking to International Business Times, Barnett said:
“Luke Shaw is going to be one of the best left-backs in the world. Manchester United love him and Luke Shaw loves Manchester United.”
Shaw has been in midst of heavy criticism by Jose Mourinho and for all the right reasons. Even though he is still young and has better years ahead of him, his constant injury niggles remain United’s reason to worry about. Shaw, along with Ashley Young and Marcos Rojo is one of United’s long-term absentees, although the Portuguese did pick them during the team’s pre-season tour to continue their rehabilitation in the US.
Addressing their respective comebacks, Mourinho said,
“It’s good to have them here, it’s been good for them to be with us and recover with the group. They have no chance for the beginning of the Premier League season.
“Luke Shaw is the first one to recover, Marcos will be last and Ash will be in between. Luke is September, Young is October and Rojo is December, or maybe January.”
United are well expected to use Matteo Darmian or Daley Blind in the left-back slot meanwhile.
