Mourinho Reveals He Benched Memphis Depay Because Winger Wants To Leave

Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, has admitted that he has not picked Memphis Depay recently, because the player told him he wants to leave the club.

Depay joined United for £25million from PSV in the summer of 2015.

The Holland international has started only one senior game under Mourinho this season – the EFL Cup tie at Northampton Town on September 21.

His last appearance in a United shirt was a eight-minute substitute appearance against Feyenoord in the Europa League on November 24.

“In the past couple of months, my decisions in relation to Memphis were influenced by the feelings and information that he would like to leave in January and that we were going to have a real offer that we would be willing to accept,” Mourinho told a news conference.

“That obviously influences me.

“We had this conversation with a few players and we left things very, very clear. If I know, if I have the feeling that a player is leaving, I have to give chances to and develop other players.

“So then I go to [Jesse] Lingard, [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan, [Anthony] Martial, the players I know 100 percent are going to stay with us. And it is also a position where we have more options.

“Memphis was not playing last season. It was not that last season he was playing phenomenally and now this season he is not playing at all. That’s not the situation.”