The agent of Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw has aimed a clear dig at former Red Devils manager Jose Mourinho.
The England international is in fine form for Man Utd at the moment, but had a difficult time at the club when Mourinho was in charge.
As noted by The Athletic, Mourinho never seemed to miss an opportunity to take public shots at Shaw’s performances, with the player’s confidence clearly damaged by what went on.
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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer now seems to have got the best out of Shaw, but his agent Jonathan Barnett also told The Athletic about the work his team did to boost Shaw’s confidence after the damage done by Mourinho.
The agent also slipped in that he felt a lot of it was “personal”, suggesting he wasn’t entirely happy with how Mourinho singled his client out.
However, he insists he never advised Shaw to leave Old Trafford, and the player himself also didn’t seek to quit even in that difficult period.
“My job in that situation is to make sure the player’s spirits are kept up. We try behind the scenes to help them understand what’s gone wrong,” Barnett told The Athletic.
“A lot of it is personal. We had to rebuild his confidence, which we did. We took certain steps. But Luke is a very strong man. He never got too down.
“His family had to be there for him and we had to be there for him. We didn’t say, ‘You’ve got to leave Man United, we’ve got to go because we need to make money’. We didn’t force Luke Shaw out of Man United. He wanted to stay there. And that’s what he’s done. And today, he’s a great, great player.
“My company, for example, has two analysts who are considered to be some of the best in the world and have worked for some of the biggest football clubs in the world. We took them away (from those clubs) to work for us. Then we sit down with somebody like Luke Shaw and analyse his game for him, like a club would.
“This is a personal thing that we do for our players. We show him what he’s doing wrong or what he’s doing right.”
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