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GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE have hit back at Jose Mourinho after the Manchester United boss complained about the lack of an escort to Old Trafford.
Manchester United arrived at the stadium for last night’s Champions League group stage match with Valencia just 45 minutes before the scheduled 8pm kick-off.
But the players only began their warm-up at around 7.40pm.
It meant the match was delayed by five minutes.
“We left the hotel at six o’clock, hoping that 30 minutes would be enough,” he said.
“Which normally is but this time the police refused to do an escort so we come by ourselves.
“And we took from the Lowry Hotel, 75 minutes.
“And Uefa were nice, the referee was nice to allow us to start the game five minutes later because we at least need half an hour to be prepared but was not a problem with the club organisation.
“We anticipate everything that it could be dangerous, in the sense of arriving late but we were informed the police refused an escort.”
But GMP have now responded to Mourinho and revealed they had spoken to United months in advance.
A statement from GMP said: “All police deployments are carried out following a comprehensive risk assessment process and specifically in respect of escort team buses, are only ever undertaken on occasions when there is intelligence or information to suggest a risk of threat or harm to the players.
“GMP has previously used police vehicles to accompany a team’s coach but after a review of our core policing responsibilities it was decided that we would no longer provide this service at every fixture.
“We consulted with the relevant football clubs over a period of months to allow them adequate time to plan ahead for their journeys to the stadium.
“Every fixture is assessed individually and we will continue to work with all clubs to provide an appropriate policing response.”
United host Newcastle on Saturday in the final round of Premier League fixtures before the international break.
Source:www.express.co.uk
