Spurs now more powerful than United – Jose

JOSE MOURINHO believes the days of Manchester United being able to cherry-pick the best players are over – and that the club must get far better at scouting and recruiting those capable of developing into world beaters.

The United manager believes there has been a power shift on and off the pitch that has made it far harder for them to compete for elite players at Old Trafford.

As Mourinho faced up to the loss of Alexis Sanchez for around six weeks with a hamstring tear, and admitted the best he could hope for in next month’s transfer window was one signing, he cited Tottenham as an example of the changing landscape facing United.

Whereas United plucked Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov from Spurs in 2006 and 2008 respectively, Mourinho said there was no chance of being able to do the same with Harry Kane, Dele Alli or Christian Eriksen now. He stressed that United would have to improve at identifying and landing emerging talents if they were unprepared to pay the “crazy numbers” for the biggest names.

“I know that we have to do better than what we are doing but one thing is to do better and another is to compare ourselves with what Manchester United was in the past because it is impossible,” he said. “You have no chance in the market unless you go to crazy numbers, or you go to what you call the secondlevel players and still have crazy numbers.

“Can you buy Tottenham’s best players? No, because they don’t sell. Who is more powerful now? Them or us? Football has changed. Clubs don’t want to sell, and to sell is to go to absolutely incredible levels.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)