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Jose Mourinho stands by his warnings on selling players, rejects £19 million bid

Published Jan. 3, 2017 10:47 a.m. ET

Caitlin Murray

Jose Mourinho warned that he wasn’t interested in selling his players on the cheap, even if they aren’t playing. Now, the Manchester United boss is making good on his promise.

Manchester United have rejected a £19 million bid from Everton to sign Morgan Schneiderlin, who has made just three appearances in league play. Even though it seems Schneiderlin is not in Mourinho’s plans, Man U reportedly want to recoup the £24 million they spent signing Schneiderlin in the first place.

The rejected bid is just the latest bit of evidence that Mourinho was serious when he suggested it would take a lot for him to part ways with Schneiderlin, Bastian Schweinsteiger or Memphis Depay.

“I don’t want to sell players,” Mourinho said last week. "The club and the board is totally with me. But as I’ve said, if a player is not having lots of minutes and really wants to leave, we have no right to stop him leaving if the conditions are our conditions.

“But we have not received one single offer that we are going to accept.”

Now it appears those conditions may relate to whatever Man U paid in the first place so the English Premier League club doesn’t lose money on the player. The Chicago Fire offered Schweinsteiger a $16.5 million three-year deal — but with Man U having paid a transfer fee that reports have put between £6.5 million and £14.4 million, it seems the MLS club will need to put a lot more cash up.

Man U had already rejected a £13 million bid for Schneiderlin from West Bromwich Albion. They were reportedly preparing another offer before Everton jumped in and had their offer rejected.

Depay, meanwhile, is expected to be on his way out, with Mourinho admitting that he hasn’t played Depay because he learned the player was interested in leaving Manchester in January.

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