Saturday’s briefing: Dinner on Garnacho and Rodri on road to recovery
Aston Villa moved into the last eight of the FA Cup.
Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim revealed Alejandro Garnacho was to take his team-mates out for dinner as an apology for how he reacted to being substituted against Ipswich.
Rodri took a notable step forward as the Ballon d’Or-winning Manchester City midfielder continued his recovery from his anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Aston Villa moved into the last eight of the FA Cup, while Fenerbahce announced boss Jose Mourinho was suing Galatasaray after they accused him of making “racist statements”.
Dinner on Garnacho
The 20-year-old Argentina winger’s response was to head straight down the tunnel, and Amorim, whose side host Fulham in the FA Cup on Sunday, told a press conference: “It was funny because in the next day he came to me, to my office.
“I did some investigations, and he went to the dressing room, he changed his clothes because he was wet. He watched the game in the different (place), not on the bench. In the end of the game he was there, then he went home, so there’s not an issue there.
“But I told them that in Manchester United everything is important, and the perception in a big club is really important, so he’s going to pay a dinner to all the team, and that’s it.”
Rodri’s training return
Having been sidelined since sustaining the ACL injury in September, Rodri was seen taking part in an individual session at City’s training ground in a video released by the club on Friday evening.
The Spain international’s absence has been cited as a key factor in Pep Guardiola’s Premier League champions having fallen 20 points behind Liverpool in this season’s title race, and also exiting the Champions League.
Guardiola has been reluctant to put a timetable on when the 28-year-old might play again – speaking at the start of February, the City boss said: “The most important thing for him is to recover well, he is not a teenager but he still has years to play and it’s going to happen if he recovers well.”
Villa advance
Having netted twice when Unai Emery’s men beat Chelsea 2-1 in their last game at Villa Park, on-loan Paris St Germain midfielder Asensio produced another second-half double, scoring in the 68th and 80th minutes.
As with both of the goals against Chelsea, the first on Friday was set up by Asensio’s fellow deadline-day loan signing Marcus Rashford.
Mourinho launches action against Galatasaray
The Portuguese was accused by Galatasaray of making “racist statements” in his post-match comments, in which he said their bench were “jumping like monkeys”, and that Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic did a better job than Turkish officials would have done.
Mourinho has been handed a four-match ban and a fine equivalent to £35,000 by the Turkish Football Federation for his post-match comments.
What’s on today?
Crystal Palace host Argyle’s fellow Championship side Millwall and there is an all-second tier derby between Preston and Burnley at Deepdale, while Bournemouth entertain Wolves.
