Jose Mourinho isn’t the only Manchester United employee living a strange existence in the city’s Lowry Hotel.
Every morning, Henrikh Mkhitaryan leaves his five-star accommodation early and is the first player to arrive at United’s Carrington headquarters, preferring to eat breakfast at the training ground rather than his hotel.
A speaker of six languages, Mkhitaryan is friendly and articulate. Club staff describe him as ‘an absolute gentleman’ around the place.
The trouble is, Mourinho doesn’t seem quite so taken with the player United signed from Borussia Dortmund for £26.3million in the summer.
Mkhitaryan has made just one start under Mourinho – in the Manchester derby defeat seven weeks ago when he suffered the humiliation of being substituted at half-time after a wretched performance – and has not been seen since.
Part of the problem that day was a niggling thigh injury picked up on international duty with Armenia.
However, Mourinho declared Mkhitaryan fit before last week’s game against Fenerbahce only to leave the player out of his 18-man squad for the Europa League tie and the subsequent games against Chelsea and Manchester City.
The United manager tried to explain his decision by saying ‘one thing is fit and not injured, another is match fitness – he has to work more to get the intensity and fitness to play at a high level’.
But United fans have been left bemused by Mkhitaryan’s treatment, with some comparing it to Mourinho’s handling of Bastian Schweinsteiger.
There is a key difference here. The United manager signed Mkhitaryan, he did not inherit him from Louis van Gaal.
Mkhitaryan was one of the most highly-regarded midfielders in Europe; the man voted player of the year in Germany last season on the back of 23 goals and 20 assists in 51 games for Dortmund.
A move to Arsenal was agreed in the summer but United gazumped their rivals by up to £7m to sign him.
Ironically, the 27-year-old player thought United’s need for him was greater and he would play more at Old Trafford. He could be forgiven for regretting that decision now.
As the hashtag #freeMkhitaryan does the rounds on social media, the plot thickens with every passing game.
United have moved swiftly to reject any speculation the former Shakhtar Donetsk player could be offloaded in the January transfer window.
Club insiders also deny any suggestion that he was signed to guarantee Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, two other clients of super-agent Mino Raiola, ended up at Old Trafford.
The feeling at United is that Mkhitaryan is one of those players who needs to be 100 per cent right, both physically and mentally, to perform. The club are aware that he also had a relatively slow start at Dortmund in 2013.
It’s understood they want to make sure Mkhitaryan is completely ready rather than risk another bad performance that could seriously damage his confidence.
Club doctor Steve McNally wrote to the Armenia FA at the start of this month asking for the player to stay in Manchester during the last international break because he had not fully recovered from the thigh injury.
But despite being back in training for four weeks now, however, Mkhitaryan is still unable to make the first-team squad.
It seemed like the ideal game for Mkhitaryan to ease his way back into the fold. So too does Saturday's visit of Burnley to Old Trafford following a run of more high-profile fixtures.
If he is left out again, the clamour for answers will only grow louder.
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