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Mourinho moaned on Boxing Day that spending £300m was not enough... signing Sanchez now is a massive victory for Reds boss
MANCHESTER UNITED’S imminent capture of Alexis Sanchez is a huge victory for Jose Mourinho in his battle to match the spending of his immediate rivals.
On Boxing Day, after a 2-2 home draw with Burnley left United 12 points adrift of leaders Manchester City, Mourinho sent a blunt message to the Old Trafford hierarchy. He claimed that the £300million spent in two transfer windows under him was not enough. Three days later, the manager was at it again, warning executive vicechairman Ed Woodward and the United board they risked a prolonged period in the shadow of City if they did not fork out the funds to compete with them. “The problem is not the money we invest, the problem is the money the others invest,” said Mourinho. “And it’s the problem that others with better squads, with better stability, with more options – they keep investing.” That message resonated with Woodward and the United supremos to the extent they put an exorbitant financial package of around £100m in place to blindside City and hijack their move for Arsenal star Sanchez, who is out of contract in six months.
Since Mourinho and Guardiola took over at United and City respectively in the summer of 2016, the former has overseen a gross spend on players of £286m. Meanwhile Guardiola (right) has spent £387m, endorsing Mourinho’s belief that United need to match that outlay to have a chance of keeping pace.
Woodward, and the Glazer family who control the purse strings, have always insisted the money is there for Mourinho to spend on the players he wants, with the £89m and £75m outlays on Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku respectively proof of that commitment.
But City and Paris SaintGermain have begun spending on a new scale, the Blues splashing £50m apiece on two full-backs, the French club lavishing £198m on Brazil striker Neymar, while Liverpool also upped the ante by paying £75m for centre-back Virgil van Dijk from Southampton.
Mourinho told Woodward (right) and the United board they had to keep pace with this shift in the market, which is why they moved for Sanchez in a month when they are traditionally reluctant to do business.
While City claimed the figures required to land Sanchez this month were prohibitive in terms of the overall cost, United see the estimated £100m outlay – including the £35m transfer fee, signing-on fee, agent’s fee and the player’s wages – as a decent deal, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, valued at a similar fee, going the other way.
City bid £60m for Sanchez last summer on deadline day, only to see the deal fall through, but they were prepared to make a fresh offer this month or wait until the summer to land him on a free.
But the Blues were outmanouvred by United, who reasoned they would get a £60m player for almost half that price, irrespective of the addons and wages included.
The capture of Sanchez is a major coup for United, even though City insist they walked away from the deal because the figures simply did not stack up for a 29-year-old player with so little time left on his current deal.
Sanchez, who will be handed the iconic and currently vacant No.7 shirt at United, is just the kind of player Mourinho needs.
He can play anywhere across the front line, but with Lukaku leading United’s attack, Anthony Martial emerging as first-choice on the left and Jesse Lingard providing energy and goals at No.10, there is an obvious vacancy on the right for Sanchez.
Juan Mata and Mkhitaryan have both been tried there, without success, leaving Sanchez free to fill the void, although in reality Mourinho will afford him freedom to terrorise opponents and play wherever he sees fit.
Mata, who has started United’s last five games, is likely to be the one to make way, with Sanchez offering more in terms of power, pace, guile and goals than the Spaniard.