Jose Mourinho has told ESPN FC that he is not happy with Manchester United’s transfer window and is ready to accept signing just one more player before the August 31 deadline.
Jose Mourinho handed his list of transfer targets to Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward in March, with the hope of having four new players by the start of pre-season on July 8. So far, United have completed big-money deals for Victor Lindelof and Romelu Lukaku, but Mourinho also wants a defensive midfielder and winger.
Mourinho said he knows Lukaku and Lindelof well. He managed Lukaku at Chelsea and has watched Lindelof play in the Portuguese championship each weekend.
“We always want more,” Mourinho told ESPN FC in an interview. “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.”
Manchester United signed four players, Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba in Mourinho’s first window at the club. Mourinho was hoping for a similar transfer window but it seems he might have to do with less.
Interest in Chelsea’s Nemanja Matic and Tottenham’s Eric Dier has failed to result in a breakthrough, however, and Mourinho says he may be forced to settle for just one more new signing this summer.
Mourinho said his objective is still to sign two more players, but even if they arrive before the end of August, the Manchester United manager says they will have lost crucial preparation time in pre-season.
“The market ends on August 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.”