Morgan Schneiderlin was encouraged to leave Nice in the last summer window.
Having joined the French club from Everton in June 2020, the midfielder had been dealing with injury and selection issues, and was told he’d find it hard to get in the team during the current campaign.
Instead of leaving, he decided to stay and fight out the situation, hoping he’d be able to convince his manager that things should change. Inspiration for that came from regret over leaving Manchester United for Everton in 2017.
According to Schneiderlin himself, leaving behind Manchester United and all the status of playing for the Old Trafford club was a decision he made too hastily, and he quickly realised that joining Everton at that time had been the wrong step to take.
Not only was his period at Everton less than everyone had hoped for, the player has insinuated the move has also damaged his options since then.
L’Equipe quote the 32-year-old as saying: “I learned a lot from my departure from Manchester United. I had played 40 matches the previous season with Manchester. When I come back from the Euros, I take ten days off and I play very little for three, four months.
“Then, I have Ronald Koeman and Everton who are pushing hard to get me, every day, from October. I will remember it all my life: I should have played against Liverpool (October 17, 2016), starter, and the coach (José Mourinho) comes to see me. He tells me he doesn’t feel me inside the group. I tell him that indeed, with what has happened in the last three months, I am not in it and I want to go to Everton.
“I regretted it very quickly. Even if it went very well at Everton (Jan. 2017-2020), when you play for Manchester United, when you’re at a club like that, it’s not for a moment of doubt that you have to question everything. Look at Ander Herrera: the first year I arrived, he was on the bench; he persevered, and today he is at PSG.”
