Jardim hints at Mbappe recall

Leonardo Jardim will consider restoring Kylian Mbappe to the Monaco starting line-up this weekend after the teenage star’s two-match watching brief.

Mbappe started the opening game of the 2017-18 campaign but has not been involved since his 75th-minute substitution in the 3-2 win over Toulouse.

He was an unused substitute against Dijon and Jardim left him out of the squad altogether for last weekend’s 1-0 win at Metz as he continues to be linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain.

However, the coach suggested that Mbappe is in the right condition to feature against Marseille on Sunday.

“If the match took place today [Friday], he would be in [the team],” Jardim told a media conference.

“Everyone has trained well, everyone is in good condition. We’ll decide tomorrow but normally, yes, if everything goes well – for him as for the other players.

“He’s still a Monaco player. We need everybody, he’s still an option, many times he’s an option to play, be on the bench, and sometimes he’s not in the squad, this is football.

“The player today is more capable of helping the team than the two weeks before. I would be crazy to deprive myself of the best players.

“If the match was held today, yes, I would take him. But the match is on Sunday, so we’ll wait until tomorrow.”

Jardim refused to rule out Mbappe still leaving the champions before the transfer deadline, though, before calling for the window to close well in advance of the new campaign.

“It is always the club that commands [who is available], and it was the same everywhere in all the clubs where I worked before,” he said.

“[For example] if the management tells me tomorrow that Falcao cannot play, Falcao will not play. It’s the management that pays the contracts.”

Jardim added: “My opinion on the market is that it is used to buy players but also to destabilise clubs. Not just us. 

“Sometimes there are discussions for three or four weeks without finding an agreement. It does not disrupt me, but I think that UEFA and FIFA should limit the transfer window to July. 

“If the period of the transfer market is to last four months of the year it is too much. We need physical and mental availability to work serenely. Four months of the market, it’s not good for football.”