Mourinho: Man Utd wanted four – but I’ll be happy with three

Jose Mourinho says he is unhappy with Manchester United’s transfer activity so far and will be content with just one more summer signing.

Speaking in an interview with ESPN FC the Portuguese boss revealed that the signings of £90million man Romelu Lukaku and £30.75million Victor Lindelof did not constitute a successful summer at Old Trafford.

United have been in pursuit of a central midfielder player but moves for Eric Dier, Nemanja Matic and Fabinho have so far failed to materialise, while the pursuit of Inter Milan winger Ivan Perisic rumbles on.

The report claims United are just £5million apart from Inter in the valuation of the Croatia international, who yesterday flew out with the Serie A club on their pre-season tour.

With the August 31 deadline less than six weeks away United will remain active, but Mourinho is not a happy man.

“We always want more,” Mourinho told ESPN FC. “We always feel there is room to improve, and I cannot say that I am happy with our transfer window.

“What I can also say is that it is a difficult transfer window and I don’t blame anyone – it is just a reality of things. The market is going in such a direction that many players are difficult to get, not to say impossible.

“Every club is powerful and they don’t want to sell or their demands are really high, so the market is difficult.

“Everton started really strong in the market without the Lukaku money,” Mourinho said. “AC Milan, without selling players, are buying non-stop, so it depends on the moment, the objective, maybe on new owners.”

Mourinho did admit that his best laid plans maybe be altered and admitted he may have to settle for one more recruit rather than the four he had planned for at the start of the summer.

“What I will say is that, a long time ago, we thought about four players to strengthen our squad, but it is really hard to do it. If we do the third and forget the fourth, I would be quite happy with that because I know it is difficult,” added Mourinho.

 

“At the moment we have Lukaku and Lindelof, two players I know well. I worked with one before and the other is from the Portuguese championship, which I follow every weekend.

“I am happy with them and I know that they will succeed at the club.

“The market ends on Aug. 31, so there is plenty of time, but obviously, the objective for me as manager is always to have the players as soon as possible and try to coach them in the team and develop the team with them and Lukaku and Lindelof arrived to train in time for day one.”