Wayne Rooney slams Jose Mourinho for the way he treated Man Utd youngsters

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Wayne Rooney says Jose Mourinho was often guilty of treating Manchester United's academy as if it "didn't exist" during his time in charge at Old Trafford.

Mourinho took over from Louis van Gaal in the summer of 2016, with the Dutchman having introduced the likes of Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard into the first-team during his period in charge.

However, that path from the academy into the senior setup seemed to dry up during Mourinho's tenure, with the Portuguese bringing in experienced players who were familiar to him such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Nemanja Matic.

United did win the League Cup and Europa League during Mourinho's first season, but results would quickly trail off and he was sacking acrimoniously in December 2018.

Rooney believes that the former Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Tottenham boss, currently at Roma, would have been given more leeway if he'd trusted the young players more.

"The distance between the academy and the first team and the manager, especially under Mourinho, was huge," Rooney said on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football.

"It was almost as if they didn’t exist, if you like.

"Having the relationship they had with Sir Alex [Ferguson] for 26 years and then not being allowed anywhere near the first team… It’s almost like there was a