José Mourinho has confirmed that he intends to complete all of his summer purchases as soon as possible. It is a clear indication from the Portuguese manager that he wants to fight for the title and is not intent on another season involving Manchester United in a top four race. Mourinho went out with the ambition of winning the Premier league title in his first season at the club. However, it has not gone as expected with the struggles of October and November proving costly for United, even though they have gone on an unbeaten run of more than 10 games in the last few months.
Mourinho’s last title success was the 2014-15 season when he was the Chelsea manager. Back then, a feature of the campaign was the brilliant start made by Chelsea. It was largely down to the club finishing their transfer business much earlier than rivals like Manchester City. Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas were the key purchases in the summer. Their rivals even before the start of pre-season enabled them to get into the groove straight away. The two players made a major impact in Chelsea’s title success in that campaign. It appears that the Portuguese manager is targeting a repeat of the same in the 2017-18 campaign. He said:
“The next push is the next transfer window. We didn’t use it in the winter and we are obviously going to use it in the summer and trust the players we have.
“If possible [to complete signings quickly in the summer], it is better. If you can start the pre-season with your squad it is obviously better
“I always say that the market closes on August 31 when you are already playing matches, so it is not the best moment to do it. But sometimes deals are so difficult to do that sometimes the people responsible need one more day, one more week and it goes until the end.”
Manchester United have been linked with a lot of names of the last few months. They had the opportunity to bring in Benfica defender Victor Lindelof at the start of the January transfer window. However, the club chose not to spend £ 38 million for the defender. Chief Executive Ed Woodward recently commented that the club would not be bringing in a large contingent of players in the summer. Instead, United are expected to focus on quality rather than quality.
After being linked with Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann for several months, it looks like United may miss out on the front striker – especially if they failed to qualify for the Champions League next season. Reaching the Europa League next season has been confirmed as a result of the EFL Cup success, but it will not be the objective for Mourinho by any stretch of imagination. He will still feel confident about finishing in the top four, as United are only a couple of points behind fourth-placed Arsenal.
The first priority for United will be to replace the players who are expected to leave the club in the summer. This would include key names like Ashley Young, Wayne Rooney, and Bastian Schweinsteiger. The future of striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is also under a cloud of doubt, although Mourinho expressed his confidence that the Swedish forward would stay at the club.
