Ander Herrera has admitted Manchester United's players knew something wasn't right in the build-up to Jose Mourinho's sacking by the club in December 2018.
Mourinho was dismissed four months into the 2018-19 season after a disappointing start to United's Premier League campaign.
The Portuguese manager was frustrated by what he saw as United's failure to back him in that summer's transfer window, with United's executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward vetoing a number of his preferred centre-back transfer targets.
United were unwilling to sign Harry Maguire for £75million before paying £80million for him 12 months later, while interest in Milan Skriniar and Toby Alderweireld was not followed up.
A source close to Mourinho told the MEN in 2018 the United manager 'felt very undermined' over United's inability to sign a central defender.
Now Herrera has spoken about the time leading up to Mourinho's exit in an interview with the Athletic, and agreed that things seemed to turn sour during the 2018 pre-season tour of the US.
“Yeah, I agree [problems began during pre-season,” Herrera said. “Something was happening between him and the club. But I was just a player. I am no one to tell you or find out what happened (between them). I was just trying to do my job. But it is true, the same as you saw at that time, we were seeing the same. Something was happening between him and the club.
“It is true the last six months was a bit different because he had some disagreements with the club and the team was a bit, you know… when you see your manager has some confrontations with the club, you do not perform the same way. It is true. Everything affects the training session, everything affects the daily work.”
