Mourinho : "Transfer spend is not enough"

[Dobbs]

Given the money is all relative to the time period to which we're in I can answer that easily with Vidic. He may have only cost us 7m back in 2004 but in today's football he would have been a 30m defender before even kicking a ball for us

Not a chance was Vidic's start as shaky as Lindelofs. This Vidic struggling thing has become quite the myth.

How much slower can a start be for it to be considered slow? How many less starts would said player need to get. Lindelof has 8 league starts in half a season. That's with a defensive injury crisis.

We can't afford for any of the next three or four signings to go a similar way.

 

[Red4Life_#7]

We are currently in bad form, Man City have also been quite lucky this season and haven't really been tested.

JM is one of the best managers in the world and has made huge improvements to our team. We have vision now, under LVG and ' he who should not be named ' we were panicking and lost.

We are a few top players away from being in the top group for Europe and cementing our top 2 challenge each year in the EPL.

Griezmann would have made a massive different, because as good as Rashford is, he is very Rash and inexperienced with his decision making. Lukaku leading the line is the best we currently have and what was available... but I would prefer more quality up top as isn't reliable and doesn't hold the ball up at all.
This summer will be massive for us, hopefully it's a successful one.

 

[Turkleton]

I don't think his ego would let him walk away from this. If Pep runs him out of Manchester his pride wouldn't recover.

He will blame anyone and everyone for it, except himself.

 

[Silverman]

We have spent enough, we just haven't spent well.

 

[Williams1960]

De Bruyne was highly touted and was purchased for 65 million. Sterling had a great year at Liverpool and challenged for the title. Was signed for 50 million. Aguero does play as much as Jesus does so I don't get your point there. Fact is the City team was better than ours already. The point that we could have purchased Ox is laughable. Yeah we could have, he's shite though and is nothing on Pogba. We sign players like Ox we will just be where Liverpool are. Rooney is still shit besides his goals. You are making so many poor points.

De bruyne was touted by who exactly other than city?

And he was bought for 55m not 65m. Only city went for him and many said he was a Chelsea reject who had a decent season in Germany and that was it.

Sterling was average in his last season at Liverpool. They finished 6th. He missed chance after chance. The sterling that left the Liverpool team is not the same sterling now at all.

Also de bruyne is now as CM. And the best in the world in his position too. Prior to that he was playing in various roles.

As good as aguero is, city no longer rely on him at all like they used to.

As I said, the amount of players peps cleared out and the reliance on the older established players has diminished. He's made city so much better. Are you denying this?

Also, are you saying ox couldn't offer something to this side? He would be a brilliant option for us. He's playing really well in a very strong Liverpool attack. He is 24 and has many years in him. He's a very good all round player and this season pogba hasn't done anything really that shows a major gulf in class. Chamberlain would get plenty of games here and add very good depth.

I'm not saying I want Rooney back. Far from it. But it's about how awful he looked for us and now seems fitter and stronger for everton with hunger again. Did mourinho kill that in him?

The team looks devoid of ideas. This notion we have a poor squad is laughable. It's the tactics holding the team back. The players are getting roasted in the media by the gaffer so will be scared to play their natural game.

 

[Josep Dowling]

It begins. Jose is starting to turn the screw. Maybe he's not as good as he thinks, if he's complaining about not having spent enough.

Why can't he take this on the chin, identify a few players he can coach the best out of and try to sign them for next season instead of giving the press headlines like this? I know I and probably a few other United fans are prepared to take a longer term view, especially with City having the season of their lives.

Instead, the press are getting sensationalist headlines out of him which could further fuel him leaving sooner rather than later.

I'm thinking Pep and City's success so far are screwing Jose's short termism approach and he's looking for a way out.

This. Unfortunately I feel he’s getting the excuses out to leave and make it look as though the board lack the ‘ambition’ to give him the required investment.

In this market now I can’t see how we can afford to buy the players we need to the next level. We are talking £80-£120m for one world class forward player now. I would say our budget is probably £175m each summer, so we can only afford maybe 2 players.

The club’s tactic has to change in the market. I think we need to be more focused on players who have performed in the Premier League already, top players on low contracts and taking punts of youngsters like H. Lozano or L.Bailey rather than allowing these players to move to lesser sides. Just because we have the biggest budget doesn’t mean we should waste it, which is what is happening.

 

[haram]

I cannot take anyone who thinks we could have signed Oxlade Chamberlain instead of Pogba and all would have been fine, serious. Im sorry.

No one said we had a poor squad either. Obviously not if we are second. We need more to win the league though.

 

[RedStrudel76]

He's alienating everyone. Wouldn't be shocked if the players are sick of him blaming them and downed tools from now until the end of the season ala Chelsea lads.

You can't keep beating proud players with sticks and expecting results/performances. Too much of a dinosaur approach and I'm starting to believe Mourinho is past it.. if footballers can become past it, so can managers have a limited shelf-life.

 

[RedStrudel76]

The fact is not the money spent, that's secondary but still should be enough to beat the likes of Burley. The bigger problem is the dire football alongside this, that is unacceptable I'm afraid. You can kind of accept these results if there is lovely football, but there isn't.

That's the crux of the matter.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Jose is just working the press. He does it after every poor result.

Gives them a fancy quote to run a story so they don’t make a big deal out of drawing with burnley.

 

[ivaldo]

I cannot take anyone who thinks we could have signed Oxlade Chamberlain instead of Pogba and all would have been fine, serious. Im sorry.

No one said we had a poor squad either. Obviously not if we are second. We need more to win the league though.

I can only assume @Williams1960's post in jest. No one can harbour these opinions and have the capacity to breath unassisted.

 

[RedStrudel76]

Jose is just working the press. He does it after every poor result.

Gives them a fancy quote to run a story so they don’t make a big deal out of drawing with burnley.

His words and actions have consequences (blaming the fans, players and Woodward/directors is out of order). The media have smarted up to his little tricks/games and won't let him use them anymore. That's why he's constantly moaning and looks unhappy/drained, the media won't dance to his tune anymore. He's no longer the media darling he was at his first stint at Chelsea.

Time to evolve, or miss the bus like the rest of the football dinosaurs.

 

[haram]

I can only assume @Williams1960's post in jest. No one can harbour these opinions and have the capacity to breath unassisted.

 

[Number1]

Quotes like this is why Angel Gomes should have hung on before signing a contract here.

It's not very encouraging for a young player at United waiting for a chance, knowing the manager as spent £300m in 2 years and wants more money to fill in holes rather than looking within, youth don't stand a chance here.

 

[Dinghy]

August 2016:
"I think the club was fantastic," he added. "I couldn’t be happier with the way we did our market because we got four players that we really believe in and we thought about the profile – the tactical profile, the physical profile, the personality.

"And we got them all before the start of the Premier League

August 2017:
"Everyone knows I would like a fourth player and I cannot hide that because I had that in my mind. But I am happy if I am not going to have that and I don’t think I am going to have that. I was the first to tell my board not to feel any kind of pressure from me in that respect."


These new quotes are basically him admitting that he has misjudged our squad, 1,5 years into his tenure at the club. He's had a go at both the players and the fans several times already, surely the board is up next...

 

[JK-27]

Not a great quote from Jose. He's effectively saying those who spend the most win? (odd given he was opposed to people saying in his first stint at Chelsea they only won because he bought the title) SAF won without ever spending the most money.

Let's not over react, we are second in the league, which is a damn sight better than the last 3 seasons. The problem is City are 1st hence the strong views and pressure to beat them.

City play better football, are a better team (in the sense that the seem to gel better together and work harder for each other), and signed some fantastic players, players we could have (and maybe should have) signed ourselves over the years.

There are some players we need to get rid of (Blind, Rojo, Darmian), some positions we need to improve (wide left, no.10 [if Jose stubbornly sticks to a lone striker up top], wide right), and some positions we need to find our next long term (5+ years) players for (RB [Valencia isn't going to be around forever], CB [Jones and Smalling do a job but aren't world class], and DM [Matic has been immense but he's not a long term solution]).

We are close to having the long term spine of a world beating team.

DDG is the best in the world right now.

Bailly will be a top CB.

Luke Shaw should be regularly playing LB/WB, he is the best we have in that position and is calm, fast, and will grown and grow as a player and I do think has the potential to be the best LB in the world.

Pogba is world class and well worth the transfer fee. We can all see we're better and more confident as a team when he plays. If he hadn't been suspended against City I think it would have been a different result.

Lukaku was the best thing since sliced bread at the start of the season. Yes, his goals per game has gone down but that is due to the way we are playing, not because he's not good enough. He is a top buy and if we get back to providing him more opportunities he will get us goals, no question.

Martial/Rashord should be playing centrally with Lukaku, they are both better there.

The spine of the team is there.

 

[diplomat]

The team and Mourinho are seriously imploding after the defeat to City. January couldn't have come sooner and some players like Darmian need to be sold so we can look for better alternatives.

 

[CM]

I know Mourinho notoriously makes stupid comments for the reaction but this is bad even for him. The club has backed him extensively in the transfer market since he arrived and has missed out on one signing. Does he seriously mean to say that one signing would be the difference in bridging the gap between us and City? He's a madman.

 

[Dr Baltar]

Hard to believe anyone would actually think nonsensical views like this are true but I genuinely believe that he does.
He's been delusional for a while.

Might be a great manager and I'll back him whilst he's here but he's a bit of a delusional prick really isn't he and we all know it

 

[ravikiran]

i think we should support mourinho and bring in genuine wingers + playmaker( miki is a flop)

 

[DarkXaero]

Morata 12 goals 4 assists- plays for last years champions
Lukaku 14 goals 4 assists - plays for 6 th place team with serious lack of creativity.
If we had morata we would be worse off.

Morata in his first EPL season-127 minutes per goal.
Lukaku this season-180 minutes per goal.

Not to mention that Morata provides a lot more outside of goalscoring than Lukaku does in buildup play. Nice try though.

 

[Marcus]

His words and actions have consequences (blaming the fans, players and Woodward/directors is out of order). The media have smarted up to his little tricks/games and won't let him use them anymore. That's why he's constantly moaning and looks unhappy/drained, the media won't dance to his tune anymore. He's no longer the media darling he was at his first stint at Chelsea.

Time to evolve, or miss the bus like the rest of the football dinosaurs.

Jose is a master at his dark arts of manipulation. What he tells the media is to protect his players and relieve pressure.

If he criticises the Board or the owners in the press, do they care? They won't as long as it serves the common goal of getting results for the club as it helps the club's financials.

If he criticises the players in the press, but encourages them behind closed doors, and the players know it is part of the psychological warfare most of them would accept it.

I agree with Jose that we have not been able to spend like City and there will be a cost. Good coaching can only bring you so far when you have a freakshow like City. Being second is a great position to be in at this point of time.

I think Jose is the man for the job. Our luck will turn. Yes, luck plays a part in football. We had the chances to win today but a few inches here and there means goal or no goal.

 

[Water Melon]

Is this an attempt by Jose to put pressure on the board to spend more? Can it not be settled behind the scenes? Why feed the press? Players let him down, transfers are not enough. So its basically everyone bar Jose's fault? We will see where we are in February, but so far, unfortunately, looks like City will only increase their lead. The return of Pogba, Zlatan, Rojo did not help much. The next excuse is ready already. What is he gonna say if we do not finish 2nd but lower and a team that spent less than us finishes above?

 

[Cristiano Lell]

Not a great quote from Jose. He's effectively saying those who spend the most win? (odd given he was opposed to people saying in his first stint at Chelsea they only won because he bought the title) SAF won without ever spending the most money.

Not disagreeing with much of your post, but this is not completely true. SAF spent big as early as 1989, and he also clearly outspent the competition between 1998 and 2002.

 

[Social Madworks]

At the very least, the spending is more than enough to beat Burnley comfortably at Old Trafford. I am not asking them to beat ManC at this moment, but just the farking Burnley.

 

[Cristiano Lell]

Jose is a master at his dark arts of manipulation. What he tells the media is to protect his players and relieve pressure.

If he criticises the Board or the owners in the press, do they care? They won't as long as it serves the common goal of getting results for the club as it helps the club's financials.

If he criticises the players in the press, but encourages them behind closed doors, and the players know it is part of the psychological warfare most of them would accept it.

I agree with Jose that we have not been able to spend like City and there will be a cost. Good coaching can only bring you so far when you have a freakshow like City. Being second is a great position to be in at this point of time.

I think Jose is the man for the job. Our luck will turn. Yes, luck plays a part in football. We had the chances to win today but a few inches here and there means goal or no goal.

I don't think this is the case anymore. If he is trying to manipulate the public, it's not working anymore. And he's definitively not speaking to protect his players, but himself.

His post match conference had a very arrogant tone of "well the lads are doing their best and I'm not mad at them, but what can you expect from these players, when City's fullbacks are as expensive as strikers?" He was basically saying that your team is not at the level of the best football teams in terms of individual quality. Of course he is insinuating that he himself has the best individual quality, but without more spending there's only so much he can do with this squad.
If you think this stuff is endearing him with the team I think you are wrong. I think his manic attempts to save his personal public face are undermining his work, and have done so for years. The 'master of the dark arts of manipulation' has been playing a losing game by insisting on settling every score publicly.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

This puts a lot of pressure on Jose next season, if/when we spend the money he feels is required to get us at the level we should be at.

Lukaku
Martial Pogba Winger
Matic Centre Mid
Left back Jones Bailly Right Back
De Gea

In the next couple of season, we need to be buying in at least the positions highlighted. Maybe even another winger, as Martial is a striker. Possibly a centre back too.

Preferably, i'd like us to do it in one window, but if thats not realistic, and the right players are not available, then two seasons is fair.

 

[Water Melon]

I don't think this is the case anymore. If he is trying to manipulate the public, it's not working anymore. And he's definitively not speaking to protect his players, but himself.

His post match conference had a very arrogant tone of "well the lads are doing their best and I'm not mad at them, but what can you expect from these players, when City's fullbacks are as expensive as strikers?" He was basically saying that your team is not at the level of the best football teams in terms of individual quality. Of course he is insinuating that he himself has the best individual quality, but without more spending there's only so much he can do with this squad.
If you think this stuff is endearing him with the team I think you are wrong. I think his manic attempts to save his personal public face are undermining his work, and have done so for years. The 'master of the dark arts of manipulation' has been playing a losing game by insisting on settling every score publicly.

Thank you Sir for posting something that makes sense. Otherwise some posters here have following logic: City have better players and more money, so catching them and beating is not something we should expect from Mou. Last season we had 5 teams finishing above us. Most of them having spent less money than us. We need time to gel, buy new players, we need to support Mou as if we are the only team in the world that needs to do it. All teams buy players regularly, face injuries, very few teams in the world can afford to spend as much as we are, and have Mou as a manager. Time for him to deliver.

 

[devilish]

I do agree we need to spend even more but we also have to make sure we buy the right profile of players. We need full backs and a cm as a minimum, but... I also think Mourinho need to do better than he has up till now. He has to make this team preform more as a unit.

The only thing better then 2nd place is 1st place

 

[devilish]

I don't think this is the case anymore. If he is trying to manipulate the public, it's not working anymore. And he's definitively not speaking to protect his players, but himself.

His post match conference had a very arrogant tone of "well the lads are doing their best and I'm not mad at them, but what can you expect from these players, when City's fullbacks are as expensive as strikers?" He was basically saying that your team is not at the level of the best football teams in terms of individual quality. Of course he is insinuating that he himself has the best individual quality, but without more spending there's only so much he can do with this squad.
If you think this stuff is endearing him with the team I think you are wrong. I think his manic attempts to save his personal public face are undermining his work, and have done so for years. The 'master of the dark arts of manipulation' has been playing a losing game by insisting on settling every score publicly.

He is saying the obvious. Our squad is not good enough

 

[Axkiko]

I don't think this is the case anymore. If he is trying to manipulate the public, it's not working anymore. And he's definitively not speaking to protect his players, but himself.

His post match conference had a very arrogant tone of "well the lads are doing their best and I'm not mad at them, but what can you expect from these players, when City's fullbacks are as expensive as strikers?" He was basically saying that your team is not at the level of the best football teams in terms of individual quality. Of course he is insinuating that he himself has the best individual quality, but without more spending there's only so much he can do with this squad.
If you think this stuff is endearing him with the team I think you are wrong. I think his manic attempts to save his personal public face are undermining his work, and have done so for years. The 'master of the dark arts of manipulation' has been playing a losing game by insisting on settling every score publicly.

True. He is not protecting players but himself. He simply just said the players were not good enough and board didn’t supported him on transfer market. I don’t understand the claim on putting pressure out of the players. He blames the player first on Leicester, then blames the board today. What about him? Does he changes after game by game? The only change was the excuse when we lose or draw but never gonna admits it is his responsibility.

 

[mike bird]

I don't understand why people are questioning or laugh at Jose's comments. You need to listen to the whole conversation to understand why he said what he said. He said that when a club like United go after one player, the price seems to go up, while is another team, lets say Tottenham, are after the same player, they get him on a cheaper price. Why is that not true? Thus, his comment about £300m is not enough, it is not enough because big clubs like Man Utd always have to pay more when come calling for a player. We get it that you don't like him, but do not try to distort facts.

 

[Freak]

It just means our scouting is not good enough. Plain and simple. You don’t need a team full of superstars to win the league. You need a team full of balance and we don’t have that now.

Fergie frequently bought players who were not superstars but had potential and desire - he made them into superstars. Players like Stam, Vidic, Ronaldo, RVN just being some examples.

 

[Denis79]

He should refrain from this petty BS do his job and finish 2nd, considering our last few season it's progress.

 

[Stubble]

The club needs to get more ruthless and fast. City shipped out all their dross whilst our squad is stuffed with it still and we hear bonkers soppy comments like players will only leave 'if they ask to' !! Get rid of the excess baggage and use those funds to sign better players. Also giving a 36 year old Ibra another contract after such a serious injury was another 'sentimental' decision and is being proven a major mistake now. I keep hearing how we are club which is primarily a 'business' - if so start acting like one and ring the necessary changes !

 

[Cristiano Lell]

True. He is not protecting players but himself. He simply just said the players were not good enough and board didn’t supported him on transfer market. I don’t understand the claim on putting pressure out of the players. He blames the player first on Leicester, then blames the board today. What about him? Does he changes after game by game? The only change was the excuse when we lose or draw but never gonna admits it is his responsibility.

When did he say that though? I can't remember hearing or reading that.

 

[NK86]

And any other season we’d be having a title challenge. When a team wins 17/18 games it’s going to be hard to stop.

Then just admit as much instead of crying about spending. Just accept that City had the start of a lifetime and that's the reason why we are not close to them. Not once have I heard him say this. Maybe he feels that our current points total would still not be enough.

Someone had placed stats earlier. Based on our current points tally, we would not be top in any of the top European leagues.

 

[Greck]

Don't think he's saying we haven't backed him. The board won't mind spending 90mil on the likes of Griez and Pogba, but 75mil for clumsy strikers and 50mil for 29year olds don't represent shrewd business.

His comments after the UEFA cup final will always highlight the divide that exists between how he and the club see the game

Spoiler

"If you want to press the ball all the time, you don't play short. If you are dominant in the air you go long. There are lots of poets in football but poets, they don't win many titles.

 

[Relevated]

The thing we must remember is that Joses quotes shouldnt be compared to previous things hes said as his quotes reflect only the time period in which he said them. If that makes sense.

 

[DdeGoat]

This is not good. From two weeks back when it looked a draw against City and keeping the lead at 8 points would keep us in the title hunt, this has taken a nasty turn towards nastyville. Sounds like the advent of Jose's departure now that the blame game has truly begin. He blamed the players last week and yesterday he moaned about our spending in spite of buying 7 players for close to £300m. The likes of Lindelof, Mkhitaryan & Lukaku are on him, and that's 43% of his purchases. The idea of giving Zlatan another contract out of pity doesn't look like a bright decision either. Don't have a good feeling about this. Things like this usually lead to Mou's ultimate meltdowns at clubs.

Fingers crossed we can get over this blip. Dodn't want to lose Mourinho before he was won us a title. Another failed manager would not be good for this club. Worrying times.