Manchester United could face competition from Paris Saint-Germain for Jose Mourinho this summer with Laurent Blanc’s future with the French champions under scrutiny following their Champions League elimination against Manchester City.
Despite signing a new two-year contract as PSG coach in February, Blanc admitted following Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat at the Etihad Stadium that ‘the buck stops with me’ after seeing the club fall at the quarter-final hurdle for the fourth successive campaign.
PSG president Nasser Al Khelaifi offered lukewarm backing to Blanc in the immediate aftermath of the City defeat, insisting that the former France coach ‘tried everything including a tactical gamble,’ before revealing that the club’s Qatari owners were ‘going to reflect in order to know how to go further in the competition.’
Mourinho’s availability following his departure from Chelsea last December has placed Blanc under greater threat, however, with PSG’s owners increasingly desperate to succeed in the Champions League.
Mourinho, who has won the Champions League with Porto and Inter Milan, insisted at the weekend that he is ready to return to work this summer and although the Portuguese expressed a preference to remain in England and the Premier League, he has also previously admitted a desire to win titles in all of Europe’s major leagues.
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