Jose Mourinho finally being signed as the manager of Manchester United does put a major spanner into the works for Juan Mata at the club. The 28-year-old Spaniard was one of United’s best players last season but his history with Mourinho does not bode well for him at the Old Trafford club as well.
We all remember how unceremoniously he was sold by Mourinho to United simply because he did not want the player and many believe that something similar would happen this time around and Mata could be on his way to Spain or any other club.
The problem at Chelsea was that Mourinho had someone to play in the role just behind the main striker in Diego Costa, Oscar was the man doing the role for most of the campaign post that and Mata was deemed to be surplus to requirements, but Mata does not have that problem this time around at Manchester United.
Jose Mourinho might have a lot of money to spend at his new club but he won’t have many players of the calibre of Mata available in the market unless he spends a crazy amount of money. Mata scored 10- goals for a team that struggled to find the back of the next and also had 8 assists to his name, not many players from the Old Trafford club could boast such record.
The 28-year-old also had a decent outing on the wing, even though that was not his preferred position, but he was always willing to do a job for Louis van Gaal, even if he wasn’t the best man for the job.
Mourinho though would probably want to sell the attacker as soon as possible, the Spanish star might already be contemplating his future at another club seeing as to how he was treated by the ex-Chelsea manager earlier but he does have one factor in his favour.
United do not have many options in the position that he can play, even though he was used out on the wings a lot, his ability to pick out a pass from behind the main striker and his ability to score important goals could still hand him a future at Manchester United.
Mata hasn’t spoken much about Mourinho coming in and it would be interesting to see how the Spanish star deals with the Portuguese coming in. Back in October 2015, the former Valencia player had this to say about Mourinho
“If a luxury player is a player who scores and assists and has good stats, then I’m happy to be a luxury player.
“I want luxury players in my team. I’ve scored as many goals for Manchester United in the Premier League as for Chelsea, but in something like 30 games less.
“In terms of scoring and assisting, I’m quite happy with the stats, and stats don’t lie. They are facts.”
The relationship between Mata and Mourinho is extremely complicated and with the new United manager looking to stamp his own authority in the squad, it doesn’t seem likely that he will stick with Mata next season and he could be on his way back to La Liga after the completion of the Euros.