How Jose Mourinho helped Manchester United's stars celebrate FA Cup semi-final win against Tottenham
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Manchester United's stars were handed three days off as a reward for beating Tottenham to reach the FA Cup final.
Alexis Sanchez and Ander Herrera both found the net to complete a comeback victory at Wembley - and keep United in the hunt for a piece of silverware this season.
And to thank his players for their hard work, boss Jose Mourinho granted Sanchez, Herrera and the rest of the Red Devils aces, as originally reported by the Manchester Evening News.
It is believed some players headed out to trendy Shoreditch in east London on Saturday evening, while Mourinho returned to his house in Knightsbridge, kept from his Chelsea days.
(Image: REUTERS)
(Image: REUTERS)
United had spent the majority of last week in the capital as they prepared for their semi-final.
The squad stayed in Chelsea for three nights and trained at Fulham's Craven Cottage stadium after fulfilling their league fixture at Bournemouth on Wednesday night.
Matchwinner Herrera headed to Disneyland Paris with his partner and child after the game, while Jesse Lingard and Eric Bailly were among the United players who stayed in London. Victor Lindelof flew to Barcelona and Daley Blind returned to Amsterdam.
(Image: Chris Brunskill Ltd/Getty Images)
"The attitude was good, the players were good," Mourinho said at Wembley. "They were focused, they were ready, helping each other, they were ready, confident to play, I was really happy and pleased. The answer was good.
"The fact we stayed together for five days was good, we stayed away from Manchester, away from home, we stayed in London, we stayed together, we spend our time, we spoke.
"I had a chance to feel them and I had the chance to speak with some individually, everything was really good, I think the weather helped too. Fulham was fantastic to provide for us, fantastic conditions for our training session.
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"I think the players deserve and when you deserve, especially against a team like Spurs, I think is even more important"
Mourinho's fixed days off policy quickly endeared him to United players last season. The United manager's predecessors Louis van Gaal, David Moyes and Sir Alex Ferguson all reserved the right to haul United players in for training if they had they suffered a defeat.
Mourinho's rationale was the players were bound to take defeats badly and, by summoning them in for an unscheduled training session, he would exacerbate their domestic climate.