Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has been accused of stealing a shovel during a row with builders working at the club's Carrington training ground.

Builders are on site to install several new pitches ordered by Mourinho's predecessor Louis van Gaal but are thought to have left the Portuguese enraged after they used United training cones and flagpoles to cordon off their work area.

Mourinho is said to have responded by stealing a spade and telling the workmen: "If you take things of mine, I will take things of yours."

A source told The Sun: "The installation is causing friction for Jose because of the amount of people and mess. He marched on to the building site and ordered them to stop 'taking my stuff'."

Manchester United have thus far refused to comment on the story.