Jose: My job would be easy if I could buy four full-backs
ETIHAD STADIUM, TODAY, KO 4.30PM (...AND WE CAN’T THINK WHO YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!)
of 2016. Mourinho’s transfer spend is almost £400m, although he lavished a worldrecord £89m on Paul Pogba, and Alexis Sanchez was handed a £400,000-aweek contract to choose Old Trafford ahead of the Etihad.
Yet Mourinho is clearly irked about his neighbour’s £185m investment to land Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy, Danilo and Aymeric Laporte last year.
Mourinho added: “If I need a full-back and I was able to buy four, it would be easier. So, when I needed a full-back, when I wasn’t happy with Luke Shaw’s level, the easiest thing would have been to buy four new players. “Some clubs can buy four full-backs. “But we didn’t buy a left-back for three years because we were wishing and working for Luke Shaw to be that leftback. “But during that process, we played Matteo Darmian, we played Daley Blind, we played Ashley Young, we played Marcos Rojo.
“We didn’t buy four replacements – and that is a big difference. It takes less time when you buy four full-backs. To buy four, you need good scouting – and you need money.
“But to make players well that takes more time.”
Mourinho feels the weight of United’s history is also a burden – and insists that a top-four finish would be a huge achievement at the end of his third season.
He added: “I am getting time here, but it’s Manchester United’s fault – and when I use the word ‘fault’ it is for the right reasons – that this club has a history that makes one defeat become a crisis.
“We have history and prestige. If the job was easy, I would not be here. For me, jobs are never easy.
“Real Madrid was also not an easy one. But we are working on it. We are outside the top four, trying and fighting very hard to get the points that give us the chance to get there.
“Of course, it would be an achievement to finish in the top four.”