Jose Mourinho made his thoughts perfectly clear on Pep Guardiola and Manchester City's transfer strategy during his time as Manchester United boss
Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola
Jose Mourinho took a shot at Manchester City's spending power under Pep Guardiola
(Image: PA)
Jose Mourinho wouldn't approve of Manchester United's current transfer strategy if the former Old Trafford boss' previous comments are anything to go by.
It's evident that Ruben Amorim's squad requires a significant revamp after a spirit-crushing season, which suffered one last brutal blow with a loss to Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final. United have already secured Matheus Cunha from Wolves and are in discussions with Brentford about acquiring Bryan Mbeumo.
Despite severe cost-cutting measures off the pitch, United could still make substantial investments on it, having been linked with Sporting CP forward Victor Gyokeres and Aston Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez, among numerous others.
United are aiming to rectify the damage caused by a series of costly errors in the transfer market. If the right offers come in, the futures of players such as Antony, Rasmus Hojlund, Joshua Zirkzee, and Andre Onana could potentially lie away from the club.
This strategy could be compared to the one Pep Guardiola used at Manchester City during Mourinho's tenure at United. Mourinho criticised Guardiola after City spent over £200million on defenders in the summer of 2017 as part of a broader spending spree at the Etihad.
United splurged almost £150m during that summer window, yet Mourinho maintained that they were outgunned by City's capability to keep refreshing their squad with high-priced talents. Speaking to United's website, he said at the time: "You think the club can put here now £600million and let's buy six players of £100m? The club cannot do that.
Matheus Cunha holds his hands to his face during a match with Wolves
Matheus Cunha is set to be followed through the door by numerous other signings this summer
"I cannot expect the club to do that, so it's not critical and you can see how the market is, especially with the top teams. But, you know, without taking any credit away from Manchester City and Pep and his staff and the players, they obviously have lots of credit in what they are doing.
"But Pep arrives, he has the goalkeeper of England (Joe Hart), he doesn't like him so he buys the goalkeeper of Barcelona (Claudio Bravo), he doesn't like him so he buys another one (Ederson). Now he likes.
"He has [Pablo] Zabaleta and [Aleksandar] Kolarov - two very good players but more than 30 years old. He wants to replace, he doesn't replace with two, he replaces with three.
Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim speaks to the media
Ruben Amorim has a huge rebuilding job on his hands(Image: Yu Chun Christopher Wong/Manchester United via Getty Images)
"One from Tottenham (Kyle Walker), one from Monaco (Benjamin Mendy) and one from Real Madrid (Danilo) as an example. Can we buy six or seven players at the same time? Can we invest £600-700m? No. So, it's difficult.
"I think the last years, the market is going in such a direction or you belong to one of these clubs where there is no limit and you just buy what you want and there is no limit, there is no financial fair play, there is nothing, you do what you want - or it's hard."
Nowadays, clubs are constrained by financial limitations, which typically means that high-cost signings are paired with player sales. This is expected to be the case at United this summer. However, it's doubtful that Mourinho, now in charge of Turkish giants Fenerbahce, would endorse United's current transfer approach of replacing expensive signings with yet more expensive signings.