Jose Mourinho guarantees Manchester United stars specified day off each week

It means there will no longer be any unscheduled training sessions

Jose Mourinho is said to have delighted his players with the decision (Getty Images)

Jose Mourinho is making friends at Manchester United by guaranteeing his players a specified day off every week.

Predecessors Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes and Louis van Gaal reserved the right to call players in for unscheduled training on the back of a bad result, but Mourinho has assured his squad that that will not happen under his leadership.

The previous regimes’ habit of calling in players for an impromptu session put a strain on their family relationships with players unable to plan days out with their children any time in advance.

The move is understood to have pleased United’s senior players especially with the mood among the squad high, despite the recent loss to rivals Manchester City.

The reasoning behind Mourinho’s decision is that everyone, both players and coaches, are expected to take a defeat poorly and calling the squad in for an unscheduled training session could further sour their mood.

It has been reported that United’s players are enjoying Mourinho’s new regime and have already established a strong relationship with the Portuguese and his six-man coaching staff.

The Manchester Evening News quotes a source describing the staff as “very funny, big jokers and nothing like the serious guys they make out they are when it’s game-time”.

United fans got a glimpse of this side during the much-troubled preseason tour of China when Ricardo Formosinho, a member of Mourinho’s backroom staff, was caught on camera chasing Jesse Lingard after a prank during training.