Former Manchester United player Angel Gomes has opened up on being brutally criticised by former boss Jose Mourinho in front of the first-team squad.
The 21-year-old has just concluded his loan spell at Boavista from Lille having left United for the French club when his contract expired two years ago. Once tipped as one of the most exciting players in the Old Trafford academy, Gomes made just 10 first-team appearances for the club.
Gomes was handed his United debut by Mourinho when he replaced Wayne Rooney in the 88th minute of a 2–0 home victory over Crystal Palace on the final day of the 2016/17 campaign, making him the club's youngest first-team player since Duncan Edwards in 1953 and was the first player born in the 2000s to feature in the Premier League.
Now an England Under-21 international, Gomes featured more under Mourinho’s successor in the United hot seat Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but decided to leave for pastures new in 2020 in his search for first-team football.
Gomes has recalled to Sport Bible when he was promoted to United's first-team squad before being receiving a blast from Mourinho in front of his teammates: "I've never actually told this story before but one time, he took me to a cup game with the first team after I'd played with the U21s. We were at the dinner table and he's come around speaking to everyone. He then looks at me and says, 'I am f***ed with you!'
"At the time he was having a laugh with everyone, so I thought he was joking with me. I asked why and he brought up my performance from the day before. He must have thought I'd played s***. I didn't think I played that badly but he's the big boss, so if he thought I'd played bad, I'd played bad."
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Gomes continued: "He was saying, 'You were doing this and doing that but you should have done this and that...' And this was in front of the whole squad as well. I'd had b******ings in my time but not from the big boss. I just wasn't expecting it. I was taken aback.
"He eventually finished shouting and carried on with what he was doing. I was stuck to my seat. Eventually, some of the lads came over and said, 'don't worry, just ignore him. He's trying to get a reaction from you. This is how he is.' "I was only young so in my head, I was thinking, 'F***, he hates me.' I went back to my room and rang my dad. I was nearly crying."
Gomes went on to acknowledge that Mourinho was "very, very passionate" and that he would "always want the best" for his players, wanting them to react to his treatment of them and believing it was the best motivational tool. The player added that he would love to work again with Mourinho, now in charge at Roma, once again in his career: "I think I was too young to understand him as a person but with my maturity now, I would love to play under him again because he gets the most out of his players."
