We’ve been here before.
But while Jose Mourinho’s ability to spitefully marginalise talented players at the drop of a hat is well-known, it’s Luke Shaw’s own position which gives this situation at Manchester United a sense of devilish deja vu.
Because it’s not the first time the left-back has had his work rate questioned, and while Mourinho’s choice of language is more coarse and cutting than Roy Hodgson or Louis van Gaal, it may be because the Portuguese is fed up with the message not getting across.
In 2014, in the wake of Van Gaal’s decision to place Shaw on a personal fitness plan, then-England boss Hodgson saw fit to reveal both he and former Southampton boss Mauricio Pochettino harboured concerns about his conditioning.
Unlike some of Mourinho’s previous attacks on players, this is an issue that is clearly not invented.
Exaggerated, perhaps, and amplified to the public to distract from United’s inability to win football matches, but Shaw has a problem and one that only he can solve.
Of course, it may not matter what he does on the training ground or pitch between now and the end of May – Mourinho’s mind may already be made up. But Shaw is in danger of following so many English talents into mediocrity.
Luke Shaw on Jose's recent comments regarding him... Brilliant attitude to have! #MUFC pic.twitter.com/sM4cSAq5D5
— Top Flight Talk (@TopFlightTalk) April 5, 2017
If he is to fail under Mourinho at United, he’ll still undoubtedly earn a considerable well-paid five year-plus deal at another very good Premier League club, taking him past his mid-20s.
But it’s this kind of gilded existence that has accelerated the decline of so many before him – Shaun Wright-Phillips, Scott Sinclair, Joe Cole, Wayne Bridge, Micah Richards – in a league which hands out huge contracts to any young English player who’s enjoyed a handful of half decent appearances.
Shaw is an outstandingly good prospect, but with common wisdom telling us that England’s continual failures at major tournaments are, in-part, born out of an apathy to international football created by the wealth and comfort of domestic life, then maybe, just maybe, Mourinho has his best interests at heart.
Because if Shaw doesn’t heed this warning, like he hasn’t that of Pochettino, Van Gaal or Hodgson, English football will have created itself another footballer who had so much more to give but never needed to improve on those positive first few years. Deja vu, indeed.
