Pep feared Sanchez deal

market is to help clubs that didn’t work well in the previous summer.

“That’s why we don’t like to do business in January, because it shows we didn’t give our best, we didn’t try our best. That is not the case here.

“But if you have the chance to buy a special player in special circumstances – a player who you would try to buy in the summer anyway – then that’s a special situation and you try to do it. If it happens, we are sure it is good for the future of the team.”

Mourinho added: “The team are lacking nothing. It is not at the point that we are lacking something or we desperately need something. It is just thinking about the improvement of the team in the future.”

Guardiola, above, had made no secret of his admiration for Sanchez, whom he bought for Barcelona in 2011 from Udinese, and he had a £60m offer for the striker rejected by Arsenal last summer. The deal edged a step closer when Henrikh Mkhitaryan said his farewells to team-mates last night while his agent continued to negotiate a ‘golden goodbye’ from United on top of a ‘golden hello’