Has Mourinho got his money’s worth?
MANCHESTER’S BIG SPENDERS Signings made by Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola since they took over the two Manchester clubs 18 months ago…
( Dortmund) £ 21m £ 37m £ 50m £ 17m £ 28m
Ilkay Gundogan Leroy Sane ( Schalke) John Stones ( Everton) Claudio Bravo ( Barcelona) Gabriel Jesus ( Palmeiras)
£ 43m £ 35m £ 50m £ 26m £ 52m £ 359m Pogba for a world- record fee, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
He declared himself happy last summer when executive vice- chairman Ed Woodward signed three of his four targets – Romelu Lukaku, Victor Lindelof and Nemanja Matic. They missed out on Ivan Perisic as United deemed Inter Milan’s £ 50million asking price too steep.
The total spend over 18 months of £ 286m meant his remarks following the 2- 2 draw with Burnley were greeted with some ridicule. What has changed is that Mourinho, above, did not anticipate Pep Guardiola improving City to such an extent that they would turn the title into a one- horse race by the halfway mark . And his buys, it could be argued, have not MAN UNITED FREE £ 30m ( Dortmund) £ 28m £ 89m
Zlatan Ibrahimovic ( PSG) Eric Bailly ( Villareal) Henrikh Mkhitaryan Paul Pogba ( Juventus)
MOURINHO been as successful as City’s. Pogba, Lukaku and Matic have improved United, as did Ibrahimovic last term, although he has not looked the same since returning from his knee injury. But Bailly is injury prone, Mkhitaryan has not delivered consistently and Lindelof is still coming to terms with the English game. Guardiola has spent £ 360m on 10 senior signings and the only ‘ failure’ has been Claudio Bravo, although the keeper has redeemed himself to a certain extent with his Carabao Cup heroics . John Stones and Leroy Sane have brushed aside early question marks , while Ederson Moraes, Gabriel Jesus, Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy, before his season- ending injury, have fi tted into Guardiola’s footballing template perfectly .
Signifi cantly, Guardiola has also worked hard on improving players that he bought – Stones in particular – and ones he inherited like Raheem Sterling, Nicolas Otamendi and even Eliaquim Mangala .
It is no secret Mourinho wants Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann and Mesut Ozil. A major bonus with Ozil is that Arsenal’s German star will be available on a free in the summer. Mourinho also wants a winger and another central defender.
But while he is applying the pressure on United’s hierarchy, they could point to some of his selections, substitutions and his team’s Achilles heel of defending set- pieces .
He should never have started the struggling Ibrahimovic against Bristol City or Burnley, while at Leicester he hooked two- goal hero Juan Mata when his ability to keep the ball in the closing stages was vital. He also failed to sort out the shambles when Chris Smalling was injured and he had used all his substitutions and it led to Leicester’s late equaliser.
He might also like to consider that Burnley’s starting line- up on Boxing Day cost a mere £ 39m – half the price of Pogba.
For all United’s commercial success, they will never be as rich as their neighbours because of the petrodollars of owner Sheikh Mansour.
As one senior source at Old Trafford remarked when asked about the fi nancial muscle of City and Qatar- backed Paris Saint- Germain: “It’s diffi cult to compete with clubs sitting on an oil fi eld.”
Perhaps Mourinho should refl ect on that and focus more on improving on the not inconsiderable playing resources he already has at his disposal at
United.