‘His father is a better man than Ole’: Jose Mourinho defends Son Heung-min from Solskjaer criticism

Jose Mourinho was left “very disappointed” by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s claims that he would not feed his son if he had behaved like Son Heung-min during Manchester United’s 3-1 win at Tottenham.

Solskjaer was unhappy when Son went down holding his face after being fended off by Scott McTominay in the build-up to an Edinson Cavani goal that referee Chris Kavanagh controversially ruled out after a VAR intervention.

The incident did not matter too much, as after Son, who was later racially abused on social media, then put Spurs in front, United hit back in style after the break as goals from Fred, Cavani and Mason Greenwood gave them the points.

But the Norwegian was unhappy with Son after the game and said: “We shouldn’t be conned. If my son stayed down for three minutes and needed 10 mates to help him up, he wouldn’t get any food.”

Mourinho, perhaps as a diversion tactic after a damaging defeat, brought the matter up himself in his post-match press conference and also accused journalists of lacking “moral honesty” for not asking him about it.

He said: “First of all, let me tell you something. I’m very, very surprised that after the comments that Ole made on Sonny, you don’t ask me about it.

“Because – and I told Ole already this because I met him just a few minutes ago – if it’s me, telling that player A, B or C from another club, ‘If it was my son I wouldn’t give him dinner tonight,’ what would be the reaction of that?

“It’s very, very sad. I think it’s really sad that you don’t ask me about that. It’s sad you don’t have the moral honesty to treat me the same way as you treat others.

“In relation to that, I just want to say that Sonny is very lucky that his father is a better person than Ole. I am a father. I think as a father you have always to feed your kids. Doesn’t matter what they do. If you have to steal to feed your kids, you steal.

“I’m very, very disappointed. As we say in Portugal, bread is bread and cheese is cheese. I told Ole already what I think about his comments and I’m very disappointed that in five, six, seven questions you ignore the dimensions of that comment.”

Cavani put in a brilliant shift in the No 9 position and Solskjaer revealed he is trying to persuade the Uruguayan to stay at Old Trafford beyond the end of the season.

“Fantastic performance, we are awaiting his decision if he wants to stay or wants to move on,” he said. “A performance like today we as a club have missed for a few years, we have not had that No 9 for a long, long spell.

“Edinson has been working so hard to get fit and we can see the boys played to his strengths as well. We have had open and honest meetings and it’s no secret we want to keep him. I don’t think it is any secret that this has been a difficult year for everyone.

“With the pandemic, it has not been possible to have friends over, you can’t have family over without quarantine. He has not been able to experience the fantastic culture of Manchester and England and he is contemplating and thinking long and hard about what he wants to do.

“I understand. He knows what we want, I want him at Old Trafford in front of a full Stretford End scoring a header like today. Let’s wait and see.”

PA