Jose Mourinho: 'I prejudged Bastian Schweinsteiger'

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 31 March 2017

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho admits that his treatment of Bastian Schweinsteiger was down to preconceptions he had of the player.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has admitted that he prejudged Bastian Schweinsteiger before he had arrived at the club.

Schweinsteiger spent the first months of Mourinho's reign as an outcast, forced to train with the youth team and not given any chance of breaking into the starting XI.

Mourinho did eventually allow the World Cup winner back into the fold, but playing opportunities were still severely limited before the midfielder joined Chicago Fire earlier this week.

The United boss admitted that he regrets the way he handled the situation, but revealed that he did so partly because of Schweinsteiger's regular trips back to Germany for treatment last season.

"In this moment, I always say the second season is the season where a manager knows everything about the players. What I knew about Bastian was not as a player because everybody knows," he told reporters.

"But what I knew about him was a season full of injuries, a season where he almost didn't play, a season where he was not even having treatment in the club. It was outside the club and I thought that was not right, the mentality was not right.

"It was the kind of player that I wouldn't like to have in the squad. In the second season, I know everything what is going on. In the second season I know the players I want, the players I don't want, why I want, why I don't want. Why a player is playing, why a player is not playing.

"Now I am inside for 10 months and 10 months is a long time. The second season is where the managerial point of view is easier than the first."

Schweinsteiger was limited to just four appearances across all competitions after Mourinho's arrival at the club.