Goalie Johnstone only Man-U footballer to leave in January on loan

Manchester United head coach Jose Mourinho on Friday announced that goalkeeper Sam Johnstone will be the only footballer leaving the club on loan during the upcoming January transfer window.

The 23-year-old Johnstone, who won the FA Youth Cup in 2011, is yet to register a senior appearance for the club.

"Sam Johnstone is the only player that I allow to go on loan because he doesn't play one single minute. He needs to play," he was quoted as saying by the club's official website.

"We have a young goalkeeper in Joel (Pereira), a goalkeeper who played many minutes in the last six months. For the development of both, Joel played six months in the Portuguese Premier League and now it's time for Sam to play six months -- and that's the only loan move that we're going to do."

according to manutd.com, Johnstone has previously spent time on loan at six different clubs, most recently Preston North End, with whom he won promotion from League One to the Championship in 2015/16.

Mourinho also made it clear that the decision to part ways with a player will only be taken if the conditions are correct for all parties.

"I don't want to sell players. The club, the board, are totally with me -- they don't want to sell players," Mourinho reiterated.

"But as I told before, if a player is not having lots of minutes and if a player really wants to leave, we have no right to stop the player to leave -- if the conditions are our conditions. And until this moment we have not received one single offer that we are going to accept."

--IANS

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