FORMER Manchester United star Angel Gomes has revealed he was on the end of a brutal dressing down from Jose Mourinho that left him on the verge of tears.
The England Under-21s star spent 14 years at Old Trafford working his way from the youth ranks to the first-team.
Gomes was handed his first-team debut by Mourinho in May 2017 at the age of just 16 – replacing Wayne Rooney in United‘s 2-0 win over Crystal Palace.
It made him the youngest United star since Duncan Edwards, but the now-Lille star has admitted it wasn’t always smooth sailing.
Gomes, 21, told SPORTbible: “I’ve never actually told this story before but one time, [Mourinho] took me to a cup game with the first team after I’d played with the Under-21s.
“We were at the dinner table and he’s come around speaking to everyone. He then looks at me and says, ‘I am f***ed with you.’
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“At the time he was having a laugh with everyone, so I thought he was joking with me.
“I asked why and he brought up my performance from the day before. He must have thought I’d played s***.
“I didn’t think I played that badly but he’s the big boss, so if he thought I’d played bad, I’d played bad.”
Gomes continued: “He was saying, ‘You were doing this and doing that but you should have done this and that’… and this was in front of the whole squad as well.
“I’d had b*****kings in my time but not from the big boss. I just wasn’t expecting it. I was taken aback.
“He eventually finished shouting and carried on with what he was doing.
“I was stuck to my seat. Eventually some of the lads came over and said, ‘don’t worry, just ignore him, he’s trying to get a reaction from you. This is how he is.’
“I was only young so in my head I was thinking, ‘F***, he hates me.’ I went back to my room and rang my dad. I was nearly crying.”
Gomes went on to say he now, five years on, realises Mourinho is just “passionate” and only wanted what was best for him – while also appreciating it was a harsh welcome into the world of senior football.
He claimed: “It eventually clicked in my head as to the type of person he is… he is just very, very passionate.
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“Mourinho would always want the best and I think, for me, he was trying to get across that it wasn’t going to be an easy ride. This wasn’t youth football.
“I think I was too young to understand him as a person but with my maturity now, I would love to play under him again because he gets the most out of his players.”
