ALL GONE RON

Jose said NO to Cristiano move ...United then failed to sign stars he DID want as boss says: I knew it’d be tough

JOSE MOURINHO urged his Manchester United bosses NOT to make a move for Cristiano Ronaldo when the Portugal superstar decided to quit Real Madrid this summer.

The United boss felt that handing Madrid a £90million fee for the player (right), who would also command wages of £500,000 a week, made no sense when he had made it his top priority to sign defensive reinforcements. But Mourinho’s stance backfired when United chiefs then failed to deliver Toby Alderweireld, Harry Maguire or deadline-day target Diego Godin.

Mourinho is still furious that Executive Vice-chairman Ed Woodward refused to splash the cash on at least one new centre-back after successive defeats to Brighton and Tottenham.

Especially when Woodward was ready to spend big to bring back five-time Ballon D’Or winner Ronaldo

to Old Trafford at the age of 33. Ronaldo eventually moved to Juventus – and will now make an emotional return to Manchester in October after United drew the Italian giants in the Champions League.

But Mourinho is still angry that his employers refused to invest more than £75million on Brazilian midfielder Fred, teenage defender Diogo Dalot and third-choice keeper Lee Grant when he had urged them to spend on defenders, such as Leicester City’s Harry Maguire (right).

Mourinho admitted: “I said in the summer what would happen, before the competition started. I knew this was going to be difficult because I also knew that last season was very difficult.

“The teams that are really, really good offensively are the teams that are very, very solid from the back.

“Teams that have the offensive mentality are also ultra-confident defensively.

“Against Spurs, we were really positive and really strong and I think a very good opponent felt they were really in trouble. But two defensive mistakes in five minutes lost the game for us.

“It’s a process and it’s a process that has risks – especially if you make the defensive mistakes that breaks that dynamic.

“Two defeats are two defeats. We still have 35 matches to play. But our realistic target now is to win on Sunday. After that, it will be to win against Watford.”

United haven’t lost three of their opening four games since 1986 – when Ron Atkinson was sacked and replaced by Sir Alex Ferguson.

A difficult week was made worse when they were given a tough Champions League group, which includes

Valencia and BSC Young Boys as well as Ronaldo’s big-spending Juventus.

Mourinho said: “We know in the Champions League, we have to play the biggest candidate.

“Juventus were always a big candidate, but they have transformed themselves into the biggest candidate because they don’t hide that the investment they’ve made has been made to win it.

“Cristiano will like coming back – he was happy to do that when he was at Real Madrid.”