Jose Mourinho has hit out at Manchester United’s transfer policy during his time in charge, blaming it as one of the reasons for the team’s failings.
Although United splashed out £89 million ($115m) on Paul Pogba and £75m ($97m) on Romelu Lukaku during his time in charge, Mourinho was left increasingly frustrated by what he perceived to be a lack of backing in the market by the Old Trafford board.
Mourinho used an appearance as a television pundit on beIN SPORTS on Saturday to highlight the spending lavished on Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp’s squads.
“In the first season, Guardiola was not champion and it was really difficult, people were expecting a winning Manchester City,” he said. “They were coming already from a winning period, they were champions with [Roberto] Mancini and [Manuel] Pellegrini.
“Some of the players were champions twice – [Sergio] Aguero, [Vincent] Kompany, lots of them. And in the second season, Pep made great decisions but great decisions that were supported.
“He didn’t want [Pablo] Zabaleta and [Bacary] Sagna, two right-backs, he didn’t want [Aleksandar] Kolarov, he didn’t want [Gael] Clichy. In the same summer, he sold four full-backs, he got four full-backs.
“He got [Kyle] Walker, Danilo, [Benjamin] Mendy and I don’t remember, [Oleksandr] Zinchenko or [Fabian] Delph or something. He was supported. You see Liverpool [playing on Saturday], and I was thinking how many of these players were at Liverpool before Jurgen arrived?
“No Alisson. No [Virgil] van Dijk. No [Andy] Robertson. No [Mohamed] Salah. No [Roberto] Firmino. No [Sadio] Mane. No Fabinho. No [Georginio] Wijnaldum – I don’t think he played today [against Crystal Palace] – no Wijnaldum. No [Naby] Keita – this is work in depth.
“The other day I was speaking about the leadership in relation to the structure of the club. It’s not just the leadership, it’s everything, it’s even the football ideas.
“So if you are a manager and if you have in your hands the ability to choose the players who follow your football identity, or follow the idea that you think is the best to win a certain competition, that’s one thing. Another thing is if you are not able to do that.”
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