McNair explains why he begged Mourinho to leave Man Utd

Paddy McNair: Enjoying midfield life at Sunderland

Paddy McNair: Swapped Man Utd for Sunderland last summer

Sunderland defender Paddy McNair has revealed how he forced Jose Mourinho’s hand to engineer his way out of Manchester United.

The Northern Ireland international joined Sunderland in a combined £5.5m deal last summer with Donald Love – but had been told by Mourinho he would only be allowed to leave on loan initially.

However, the centre-half – currently sidelined after an ACL injury – says he spoke to the United boss to demand he was sold.

McNair, who played 24 Premier League games under Louis van Gaal at United, told the BBC“He wanted me to go on loan and I went in to see Jose and just said ‘look, if you don’t let me go on a permanent, I’m just going to stay here.

“That’s how strongly I thought about it. At the time, it’s what I wanted so I’ve got no regrets. I think he quite liked how I was straight up. I said I wanted to leave, that I didn’t want to go on loan.

“I think he respected that. I told him that I’d been here since I was 12 years old and club could at least let me do what I want to do.

“I spoke to Ed Woodward and said the same to him. I was refusing to go on loan basically. I just wanted a new challenge and off I went.”