Jose Mourinho Reveals Which Player Could Leave In January

Right now Jose Mourinho can sit back in his comfy office chair and just hope that Ed Woodward is doing everything right to sign Alexis Sanchez but if he gets any phone calls asking for one of his players they'll only be a yes for one of them.

The January transfer window is usually pretty uninspiring. Sure they'll be the odd move, usually involving clubs further down the table, and maybe a big one or two to China but this year is really different.

We've already seen Liverpool involved in two massive deals with Virgil van Dijk incoming and Philippe Coutinho departing. Next up is the deal that will see Alexis Sanchez go somewhere whilst Arsenal will likely replace him with a big name too.

It's like the Premier League clubs remember that their window is shorter in the summer, after deciding to end it when the season starts, so they're getting their madness out of the way now.

Whilst Manchester United are trying to make sure that Alexis Sanchez becomes their player it certainly won't be a month of departures from Old Trafford with Jose Mourinho saying only Axel Tuanzebe can leave:

"I have a squad of 22 players and I want to keep squad of 22 players. Maybe just because I want to make the kid a good player and I'm not giving him the chances I'm giving to Scott McTominay, for example.

"Axel Tuanzebe plays in a position where I have so many players, today on the bench I had Marcos Rojo and Victor Lindelof, and Eric Bailly is still in recovery, so I'm not giving the chances to Axel.

"So probably Axel is the only one that I open the door for him to go and play because I believe he is a really good talent and he needs to play. Apart from that, the numbers we have, we are playing Champions League, FA Cup, Premier League, I have to keep the number of players we have."

Tuanzebe hasn't had as many chances as Jose would have liked this season. Image: PA Images.

Of course Mourinho, as he always is, was very particular with his wording. He suggested he wanted to keep a squad of 22 but with Sanchez's potential arrival that does leave room for one to leave.

Speaking about Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who could be part of a player exchange, Jose added, "Is it possible he [Mkhitaryan]s going to be involved in the deal? It's possible. It's also possible he stays. I didn't select him (Mkhitaryan) today because I wanted players fully focused and I understand that with so much talk and so much speculation it is not easy for Mkhitaryan to play at home with this feeling, can happen, maybe doesn't happen."

So maybe after all two players will leave this month.

Topics: Football News, Axel Tuanzebe, Aston Villa, Manchester United, Premier League, championship

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

@Sidler28