WHY SAY ANYTHING?

With it’s usual bells, whistles and fanfares Sky Sports’ “breaking transfer news” was that Harry Maguire would, more than likely, stay at Leicester City.

This hardly qualifies as “transfer news” as it is actually stating that he is unlikely to be transferred. That minor detail, however, is of total irrelevance to a broadcasting great like Sky who pride themselves on making the most enormous mountains out of the tiniest of molehills and are unequalled in their ability to do so.

José Mourinho was reported to be interested in buying Harry Maguire but the price Leicester City have been talking is totally ridiculous for a player even the overpaying Ed Woodward values at £65 million, which is still £15 million over the odds. So Yerry Mina it is then!

It’s about time poor little José’s luck began to change what with no players available for the opening game which just happens to be against Leicester and a boss who doesn’t seem interested in buying him any new ones.

The Portuguese is about to begin his third season with Manchester United in much the same way he did with Chelsea and Real Madrid. He appears to be picking fights with a few of his players and bosses and, for those with half-decent memories, the end will not be too long in coming if he continues in this vein, despite the recent reassurances from the board.

Ed Woodward, who is bordering on hopeless when it comes to the transfer market may, along with the Glazers, be humouring their manager now because it is very unlikely that they would wish to make a change just a few days before the start of a new campaign but they won’t need much of an excuse if the season gets off to a bad start.

José Mourinho warning that he doesn’t have the players and needs some new ones won’t cut much ice with the owners who have spent more than £300 million during his tenure.

Also, and we speak from years of experience when saying it, American owners will have been distraught to hear how negative Mourinho was being about the team’s prospects during the tour. Anybody can be all things to American money-men but one thing they cannot be when employed by them is negative. They would far rather hear positive lies than negative truths!

So Mourinho’s days at Old Trafford could well be numbered unless he confounds everybody and wins the title next season.

Pep Guardiola, on the other hand, has again shown his Manchester United counterpart how to do it. He is in the same situation with big name players missing and he has also had to rely on youngsters.

In stark contrast to Mourinho he has been nothing but positive about them and is very pleased with the way the tour has gone. The results, as he rightly said, were meaningless, it was all about seeing how his kids shaped up when playing the likes of Bayern Münich or Liverpool and they did very well.

Mourinho would do well to watch the occasional press conference when given by Guardiola as he may learn a thing or two about how to answer questions. Yes, he may get fed up with them. Yes, journalists ask the most stupid and banal questions ever heard and yes, the temptation must be to make the answers as short as possible and get out of there or just avoid telling the truth.

All managers do it. They all lie in press conferences and interviews, particularly those given after a match when they will defend their players at all costs. In private they will be giving them a rollicking but very rarely in public.

Guardiola always manages to come across as genuine whereas Mourinho always manages to come across as shifty and as someone who is hiding something he doesn’t want you to know.

Of the two rivals it was always a coin toss as to who would be the first to leave Manchester for pastures new. Neither Guardiola nor Mourinho tended to stay more than a couple of seasons at a club but, on this occasion, Mourinho had been talking of an extended stay and that his Europe-trotting days were over so, on that basis and results being favourable, it was expected that he would outlast the Spaniard.

This prospect didn’t change during their first season when Mourinho won two trophies and Guardiola finished the campaign empty-handed.

It is Guardiola. however, who has bought an apartment and a share in a restaurant in the city whilst Mourinho still lives out of a suitcase in a hotel room.

It was Guardiola who won the title in his second season whilst Mourinho became the empty-handed one.

Make of that what you will but it seems as though the City manager’s stay in Manchester will be longer than that of the United manager.