José Mourinho pointed to how Manchester City have bought full-backs for the usual value of strikers and said Manchester United’s investment of close to £300m since he arrived is not enough to compete, after his side could only draw 2-2 with Burnley at Old Trafford.
Although the result cut the deficit to City to 12 points after United battled back from 2-0 down at half-time, thanks to two goals from the substitute Jesse Lingard, Pep Guardiola’s side can stretch their lead to 15 if they win at Newcastle United on Wednesday night.
Afterwards, Mourinho was reminded that United have dropped eight points from their past five matches and was asked whether such a gap might be unacceptable for a club of United’s stature.
“One thing is a big club and another thing is a big football team. They are two different things,” he said. “We are in the second year of trying to rebuild a football team that is not one of the best teams in the world. Manchester City buy full-backs for the price of strikers. When you speak about big football clubs, you are speaking about the history of the club.”
When it was put to Mourinho he has invested £300m since taking over – it is actually closer to £261m – he responded: “It is not enough. And the price for the big clubs, the price for the big clubs is different from the other clubs. So the big, historical clubs are normally punished in the market for that history.
“When you tell [describe] a club like Manchester United, do you think Milan is not as big as us? You think they are not as big as we are? Do you think Real Madrid are not as big as we are? You think Inter Milan is not as big as we are? There are many big clubs and you say big clubs, I know what is a big club.”
Mourinho was then asked if he intended to spend a lot of money in the January transfer window but left the room before answering.
City spent £130m on the defenders Benjamin Mendy, Kyle Walker and Danilo in the summer, while United paid more than £140m for Romelu Lukaku, Nemanja Matic and Victor Lindelof. Having seen his side miss out on victory against 10-man Leicester City on Saturday following an injury-time goal, Mourinho was once more angered by their defensive display.
United trailed Burnley to strikes from Ashley Barnes and Steven Defour and Mourinho criticised his players for allowing the visitors to take the lead in the third minute after Lukaku failed to clear. “Another ‘s’ goal. I don’t need to say the other letters of the word,” he said. “That is what we are having now, lots of ‘s’ goals against so that has an impact in the game.
“The end product of so much dominance, two goals, is a miserable number. The boys do what they can, they are trying hard with the problems and injuries we have. I am not happy with the result, and against Leicester, but I am happy with my players. The quality of our play, the risk that we took today and also against Leicester, the team that deserved to win both matches is us.”
