Jose Mourinho seemingly ended Luke Shaw’s Manchester United after leaving him out of the squad for Saturday’s game against West Bromwich Albion.

“Luke Shaw? It’s difficult for him to be on the bench because I cannot compare him with Ashley Young, with Matteo Darmian, with Daley Blind,” Mourinho said, per the Mirror.

“I cannot compare the way he trains, the way he commits, the focus, the ambition.

“I cannot compare. He’s a long way behind.”

It appeared to be the final nail in the coffin for Shaw, who hasn’t played a Premier League match since March 4. The 21-year-old has been linked with Tottenham Hotspur, a move that could be best for all parties considering Mauricio Pochettino helped turn the left-back into a star at Southampton.

Shaw met with Mourinho

But according to a report in the Daily Mail, the end for Shaw at Old Trafford might not be as close as Mourinho made out.

The newspaper claims that Shaw is set to return to United’s squad for Tuesday’s home game against Everton after he requested clear-the-air talks with Mourinho at United’s training ground this morning.

Shaw responded to Mourinho’s scathing comments by requesting he meet with his boss in the Portuguese’s office at 10am on Monday morning.

And Mourinho, perhaps impressed by Shaw’s reaction, is set to include him in the squad for tomorrow’s game.

Uphill battle

Man United fans will hope the youngster is finally starting to realise that Mourinho doesn’t accept slackers.

But Shaw still has a long way to go to convince the United boss that he has a future in Manchester. And as we near the end of the season, time is running out.

Fitness was a concern when he joined

Mourinho isn’t the first manager to have called Shaw’s fitness into question. Following his £28 million arrival from Southampton in 2014, Louis van Gaal ordered Shaw to undergo a personal fitness plan after acknowledging he was “not fit enough”.

“Shaw is ok, but I am always a trainer-coach who sees individuals and what they need,” the former United manager said, via the Telegraph. “He needs to be fit and is not very fit or fit enough to do what I want.

“He needs to train individually until he is fit. I cannot judge how long that will take, but I see what I see.”

The one thing on Shaw’s side, of course, is his age. He has plenty of time to reverse his current slide.

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