Mourinho Uses Bizarre Fruit Metaphor as He Digs Out City's Sour Grapes Over Alexis Sanchez Move

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has accused Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola of sour grapes following the signing of Alexis Sanchez by using a rather peculiar orange metaphor. 

Despite being hotly tipped to join the Citizens leading up to his move away from Arsenal, the Red Devils secured the Chilean in a swap deal for Henrikh Mkhitaryan earlier this week and, according to reports, the player put pen to paper on a £600k-a-week contract, including bonuses and image rights. 

It had been suggested that the north west giants were able to pip their city rivals to the attacker due to the 29-year-old's wage demands, figures which the Etihad Stadium chiefs were not willing to pay. 

However, Mourinho believes those rumours are simply not true, and that several other sides possess the spending power of Manchester United, including Manchester City, but Old Trafford was Sanchez's destination of choice simply because they are the tastiest orange. 

"You go and analyse the numbers and Manchester City spent more money than us", the Portuguese manager told his Yeovil Town pre-match press conference, as quoted by the Daily Mail. 

"Chelsea spent more money than us. Even Everton spent more money than us. I don't think that's the problem.

"Alexis could go everywhere. He had lots of choices. He decided to come here and you have to ask him why.

"Alexis reminds me a little bit of a metaphor. When you see the tree with amazing oranges at the top of the tree and cannot get there, you say: 'Oh, I got the lower ones because I don't like the ones at the top'.

"You like the ones at the top. They are so nice, so orange, so round, so full of juice, but you cannot get there so you say: 'I don't want to go there' or 'I didn't like it, I prefer the other one'. It reminds me of that story."

After Sanchez sealed his deal there were questions surrounding the sheer size of his new contract at United, with the player now by far and away the best paid player on the Red Devils' books. 

However, Mourinho once again dismissed claims that the Chile international made the move for the money, and insisted that both sides have reaped reward from the agreement, including their new star, who the 55-year-old claimed was desperate to leave Arsenal. 

"I know he has a big passion for football", he added. "I know he wanted to play in a different club, for his reasons he wanted to leave Arsenal. Obviously, he wanted to be paid according to his quality.

"Honestly, I think it was fair. I cannot say that it was expensive because it wasn't. I cannot say it was cheap because if you add all the values of his contract, it's not also cheap.

"But I think it's a very good deal for us and the player has a fantastic contract. It's a contract according to his qualities as a player and according to the situation - no transfer fee.

"How much would Alexis Sanchez cost in normal transfer, club to club, as a player with two or three years on his contract? We look at the numbers now and I would say roughly between £100-150m.

"So you put things in perspective. You go to the numbers that the club didn't pay on the transfer."