Jose: Johnstone Can Leave United On Loan

Jose Mourinho has told reporters that Sam Johnstone is the only Manchester United player who will be allowed to leave the club on loan during the upcoming January transfer window.
 
The 23-year-old goalkeeper, who won the FA Youth Cup in 2011, is yet to register a senior appearance for the club as he continues to provide back-up for David De Gea and Sergio Romero.

Johnstone has previously spent time on loan at six different clubs, most recently Preston North End, with whom he won promotion from League One to the Championship in 2015/16.

Mourinho discussed the prospect’s future during his pre-match press conference at the Aon Training Complex on Friday, when he told the media: “Sam Johnstone is the only player that I allow to go on loan because he doesn't play one single minute. He needs to play.

“We have a young goalkeeper in Joel [Pereira], a goalkeeper who played many minutes in the last six months. For the development of both, Joel played six months in the Portuguese Premier League and now it's time for Sam to play six months – and that's the only loan move that we're going to do.”

Continuing his answer, the manager reiterated his stance that United will only allow members of the first-team squad to leave on permanent transfers if the conditions are correct for all parties.

“I don't want to sell players,” Jose said. “The club, the board, are totally with me – they don't want to sell players. But as I told before, if a player is not having lots of minutes and if a player really wants to leave, we have no right to stop the player to leave – if the conditions are our conditions. And until this moment we have not received one single offer that we are going to accept.”