We’re not good enough
JOSE’S GRIM WARNING OVER UNITED TITLE BID
JOSE MOURINHO admits his current Manchester United squad is not good enough to win the Premier League title.
Mourinho believes that United are still two players short of mounting a serious challenge for next season’s crown.
While Liverpool have spent £175m strengthening their squad from DAVID McDONNELL in LA
this summer, United’s only significant outlay has been £52m on Brazilian midfielder Fred.
Asked if the squad were good enough to fight for the title, Mourinho would only say: “I don’t answer to your question.”
Top of Mourinho’s wish-list are Leicester defender Harry Maguire Turn to
and Inter Milan and Croatia winger Ivan Perisic.
Both are likely to cost a combined £130m and Mourinho wants deals wrapped up as soon as possible to give any new arrivals time to settle in.
The United boss is frustrated his club have so far only made three signings this summer – Fred, Diogo Dalot and Lee Grant – while rivals Liverpool have spent big to become title contenders.
When asked how many new faces he felt he needed, Mourinho said: “I would get two more players. One thing is what I would like, another thing is what is going to happen.”
He has cut a miserable figure on Manchester United’s pre-season tour as he prepares his squad for the new campaign.
Those plans have not been helped by the fact 10 first-teamers, including World Cup-winner Paul Pogba and United’s England contingent, have been on extended breaks following their exploits in Russia.
United continue their preparations against AC Milan tonight and Mourinho said: “If you look to the players that Chelsea and Liverpool have in the pre-season, especially these two teams and also Arsenal, if you compare, you see the difference of the situation.
“Manchester City and Tottenham are in a similar situation as we are but you can see that some other clubs are in a difficult situation.
“Our first match of the season is Leicester and the second is Brighton and, if I look to Leicester, if I’m not wrong, only Maguire and Vardy were in the World Cup in the final phase, because Schmeichel was back sooner.
Amazing
“So I think a team working for six weeks minimum, with all the players except one defender and one striker that can join in the last weekend and probably be available, it’s clear it’s a much better situation for them.
“When I look to Brighton, I don’t think they have any player that isn’t doing a very good pre-season with lots of training and matches.
“So against Leicester and Brighton, the situation is not amazing for us and I would say the third match, against Tottenham, a team in a similar situation as us, is okay.
“For the first two matches we have to fight for the points so that’s what we are going to do with the players available.”
Mourinho continued his downbeat mood by adding he is not getting all he wanted out of United’s US tour.
He said: “No. I got the facilities and I got incredible commitment.
“But I don’t have the majority of the players that are going to be in the squad on August 9 so I’m not happy.”