Jose Mourinho hails Manchester United’s ‘clever’ business

Jose Mourinho believes Manchester United are around £100m (€109.4m) better off for wrapping up moves for Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic before Neymar’s world-record move to Paris St Germain changed the landscape forever.

There was a fair bit of hand-wringing from Premier League rivals when United agreed to bring Paul Pogba back from Juventus in the most expensive transfer of all-time. Just a year on, the deal worth up to €110m pales into insignificance compared to the €222m forked out by free-spending PSG to secure Barcelona’s Brazilian star Neymar.

Senior figures at United had long spoken about their expectation of the summer transfer market being crazy and Mourinho praised executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward for making key additions before it fully took grip.

“I think we were very clever,” Mourinho said. “We thought that something could happen that could change the market forever.

“Normally the last part of the market is less expensive, but this season, after Neymar, everything changed and changed for the worse in terms of prices.

“I think Lukaku on August 31 would have been £150m (€164.2m). Matic would have been £60m (€65.7m) or £70m (€76.6m). Neymar changed everything.

“If the biggest transfer in history had still been Pogba, I think Philippe Coutinho would now be in Barcelona at £101m (€110.5m) . People look to the £200m (€218.4m) figure now.”

United were able to snaffle Everton striker Romelu Lukaku for an initial £75m (€82.1m) and Chelsea’s Nemanja Matic for £35m (€38.3m), with their combined add-ons potentially adding a further £20m (€21.9m).

Victor Lindelof has yet to make the same impact since arriving from Benfica for an up-front payment of £30.75m (€33.6m), but could also prove smart business in a summer Mourinho hoped to end with the addition of a wide man capable of playing at wing-back.

Inter Milan’s Ivan Perisic ultimately proved beyond them but the United boss is happy with this squad, albeit the Portuguese believes he needs one more summer to perfect it.

“We’re going to fight against very good teams, but we’re going to try,” added Mourinho, whose side sit atop of the Premier League after three matches.

“I have said three (summer) transfer windows is what I need to have the team I want to have, the team I think can bring Manchester United to the top of English football and to close the gap to the top of European football again, and I still think we need that third transfer window, but I’m not going to wait for the third transfer window to try to reach it.”

Meanwhile, United have withdrawn their appeal against Phil Jones’ two-match European suspension, meaning the defender will miss next week’s Champions League opener against Basle.

The 25-year-old has so far only missed the Uefa Super Cup defeat to Real Madrid through the two-match ban handed down by European football’s governing body for abusing a match official after May’s Europa League final win against Ajax.