Nemanja Matic has announced that he will be leaving Manchester United at the end of the season.
The 33-year-old midfielder has a contract with the Red Devils until June 2023 but confirmed on Instagram : "After a great deal of thought, I have decided that this season will be my last with Manchester United. I have informed the board, the manager and the players of my decision.
"It has been a huge honour and a privilege to play for this great club. A big thank you to the fans for their unwavering support. I will now give everything until the end of the season to help my teammates finish as strongly as possible." Matic's decision means he will not feature under new boss Erik ten Hag, who agreed a deal in principle with the Red Devils earlier this week to succeed interim boss Ralf Rangnick. United added in a statement: "Thank you for all of your efforts over the last five seasons, Nemanja, and here's to a strong finish to your time at United over the coming weeks."
Rumours of Matic's imminent departure began to circulate earlier this week, despite the Serbian starting United's most recent match, a dismal 1-0 defeat at Everton last Saturday. Matic signed for the 20-time English champions in the summer of 2017 while Jose Mourinho was still in charge for a fee of £40million, having just lifted the Premier League title with Chelsea.
The means the former Stamford Bridge stalwart has failed to win a trophy at Old Trafford, with his five-year association with the Red Devils seeing them reach two cup finals and lose both. It was only a fortnight ago that Matic admitted that the uncertainty surrounding United's managerial situation was difficult for the first-team squad.
"It's not easy when players think that the manager is only here for a few months," he explained. "It's not easy for him. But we are all professionals, we need to follow his ideas because it's good for him, good for us and good for the club. For the players, sometimes, if you know the manager is not here for the next season, it's not easy.
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"When you change manager, every new manager needs some time to work on it and we are trying to do exactly what he wants from us. In some games we did that very well, in some games not that great.:"
Matic also told talkSPORT : "The atmosphere depends on results. Of course, when you have good results the atmosphere is much better and everyone is happy. As you know, we are not in the best position in the league and the atmosphere is not fantastic but we have to stay positive and believe until the end because we want to finish in that top-four.
"The atmosphere in our dressing room will depend on that. If we finish top-four then it will be good for us, everyone will be… I cannot say happy, but satisfied. If we don't make that, it will be a very sad dressing room." As for the midfielder's next move, he has been linked with a reunion with Mourinho at Roma.
