I'm not saying anything to make myself comfortable. Not sure how you can equate Mourinho making some captain as rating them highly since the first player he had as captain is a regular on the bench. Smalling being better than Jones/Rojo isn't signing his praises since Rojo is garbage and Jones consistently injured.
Time will tell how much Mourinho truely rates Smalling but there's no surprise to see MEN linking us with a number of CB's in January and next summer, he'll be lucky if he isn't a squad player come next season.
Lucky if he isn't a squad player next season? I highly doubt it. Smalling can defend, and he's awesome in the air. Add his height and you have the type of defender Mourinho has always depended on especially when defending a lead. Mourinho will always go for a match fit Smalling even just because of his height and aerial ability which is second to none in this squad. He relied on Cahill at Chelsea who's not better than Smalling. As for the part in bold, do you really think Mourinho was going to come and strip Rooney of the captaincy? Which manager does that to a long serving club 'legend'? Rooney is on the bench because he's garbage, but Mourinho will not strip him of his captaincy.
Smalling on the other hand he didn't have to give him the armband in Rooney's absence. LVG described Smalling as the leader at the back, im pretty sure Mourinho sees the same thing. Lets see if United even buy a CB in January. United are ALWAYS linked to players so paper gossip doesn't mean jack. Time will tell indeed though, I agree with that
