Frustrated by U.S Tour, Jose Mourinho Hits Out at Man United Summer Business
Manchester United manager José Mourinho has criticized the club's transfer policy, after a low-key summer transfer window which has seen the club sign just two players.
Only Brazilian midfielder Fred and young defender Diogo Dalot have joined the club this summer, while Mourinho has admitted that he only expects one more signing before the window closes on August 9.
United has been linked with moves for central defenders Harry Maguire and Toby Alderweireld recently, but Mourinho is not hopeful that he will get multiple signings through the door, despite giving the club a list of five targets back in March.
“I would like to have two more players,” the United manager said via the Guardian, after his side's 1-4 pre-season defeat to Liverpool in the International Champions Cup. “I think I am not going to get two. I think that it’s possible I will have one.
"I gave a list to my club of five names a few months ago and I wait to see if it’s possible to have one of these players. If it’s possible, it’s possible. If it’s not, it’s not. If it’s possible, it’s good. If not then we keep fighting and working and believing in the players that we have.”
Mourinho also claimed that he 'wouldn't spend his money' to watch United during their pre-season tour of America, such is the poor state that their squad is in without its key stars.
"We are not playing here to improve our team or to improve our dynamic or to improve our routines," he said. "We are playing here just to try survive and to have some not very ugly results.
"Alexis is the only attacking player we have, we do not have another one. We don't have wingers, we don't have strikers. He is the only one that is here. The poor man is there trying his best.
"The atmosphere [in the stadiums] is good, but if I was [a fan], I wouldn't come. I wouldn't spend my money to see this team."
Mourinho admitted that he didn't even have '30%' of his squad for his side's most recent friendly defeat against Liverpool, saying 'this is not our squad' after the match in the United States.
“This is nothing to do with reinforcements,” he said of the heavy defeat. The reinforcements are [Paul] Pogba, [Marouane] Fellaini, [Victor] Lindelof, [Marcus] Rashford, [Jesse] Lingard, [Nemanja] Matic, [Antonio] Valencia. These are reinforcements. This is not our team. We started the game with almost half of the players who are not even going to belong to our squad on August 9. They will not be here.
“This is not our squad. Reinforcements, you mean players that I would like to buy, that’s another thing, but this is not my squad. This is not even half my squad, or 30% of it. So don’t look to this."
United still have two pre-season fixtures remaining and will take on Real Madrid (August 1) and Bayern Munich (August 5) before the Premier League opener against Leicester City on August 10.
