Jose Mourinho names the three stars who could be Manchester United vice-captain after Paul Pogba row

Jose Mourinho claims Paul Pogba was never Manchester United’s vice-captain after their public row. The pair have blasted one another relentlessly over the past week, with Mourinho ultimately deciding that Pogba would not captain the club again. But despite the Frenchman often taking the armband whenever Antonio Valencia was not in the starting XI, Mourinho has denied that he was ever his vice-captain. Mourinho insists he was part of a rotational group along with David de Gea, Ashley Young and Chris Smalling – players who are still likely to receive the armband on occasion – but had begun to favour Pogba because he was part of a younger generation.

 However, he will now go in ‘another direction’ in deciding United’s vice-captain. ‘We had Valencia as the captain and then we had a group of players that could be the vice captain – one day I gave it to David de Gea, I gave it to Ashley Young, to Chris Smalling,’ he said ahead of their Premier League clash with West Ham.

‘I first thought about Paul last season, because [he is] a player of a different generation, younger player, the captain of the future. ‘Because Valencia, Young, they are more or less the same age, the same generation. But he [Pogba] was not the vice-captain, so now we don’t have the vice-captain.

Now it depends on the match, and depends on if Valencia is playing or not. ‘If Valencia is playing, Valencia is the captain. If he is not playing, I will try and go in another direction.’ Pogba will be in the starting line-up to face Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham on Saturday, with Mourinho expecting to take three points back to Manchester.

‘I expect to play very well tomorrow – we have worked very well, especially Wednesday and Thursday, so tomorrow I expect a very good performance and I expect to win a very difficult match. ‘I don’t come here and say “the training session was not good and I have a bad feeling and I have a feeling that tomorrow we are not going to play well and we are not going to win”. ‘I think tomorrow we are going to play very well, and I think we are going to win against a very good opponent, an opponent with great investment, with a champion manager, and lots of talented players.