Manchester United transfer news: Jose Mourinho admits he's a fighting a losing battle ahead of January

Mourinho has spent heavily since taking charge at Old Trafford in May 2016, with almost £400m going out on players, including a club record £89.3m fee for France midfielder Paul Pogba

Jose Mourinho claims that Manchester United are fighting a losing battle in the transfer market and will be unable to make major signings in January.

Mourinho has spent heavily since taking charge at Old Trafford in May 2016, with almost £400m going out on players, including a club record £89.3m fee for France midfielder Paul Pogba.

Despite that outlay, United’s Premier League form this season has been poor, with the club seventh in the table, 14 points behind leaders Manchester City, going into this evening’s match at Southampton.

Mourinho argues that United’s chances of adding to their squad further have been hampered because it is becoming increasingly difficult to buy top-class players.

To illustrate this, he cited the example of Tottenham – stating that United used to be able to buy their leading players, as they did with Michael Carrick in 2006 and Dimitar Berbatov two years later, but could never think of doing so now.

Mourinho noted that even though Tottenham spent no money in the last transfer window, they still had the financial wherewithal to keep Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and Son Heung-min.

There was no attempt by United to sign any of those four players over the summer, but their manager is convinced that Tottenham would have refused to sell even if there had been.

He said: “Is Manchester United by its history, by its dimension, bigger than Tottenham? With all respect, Tottenham is an amazing club, but I think everybody would say yes.

“Can you buy Tottenham’s best players? No, because they don’t sell. Of course, they are so powerful that they can say no.

“A few years ago, who was Tottenham’s best player? Michael Carrick. And a few years later, who was the best player? Berbatov.

“Can we go there now and bring Harry Kane? Dele Alli, Eriksen, Son? Can we go there and bring those players here? No. So who is more powerful now? Them or us?”

Mourinho says United can no longer compete in the transfer market (Man Utd via Getty Images)

In what appeared to be a covert criticism of Manchester City, Mourinho suggested that financial restrictions sometimes did not apply in the Premier League.

Mourinho said that some clubs could buy multiple full-backs at the same time, a comment he has made before when referencing City’s transfer policy. City manager Pep Guardiola bought three-full backs in the summer of 2017 while allowing another four to leave as he reshaped his squad.

“It’s more difficult to make the team better and stronger with buying – unless you do what some clubs do, and for some reason they can do this and others cannot, which is say: I need a right-back and a left-back send away the ones you have and buy four at the same time,” Mourinho said.

After making this comment, the United manager was asked why they did not have the financial muscle required to buy the best players, and said: “I cannot say the answer because one of the answers you had a few weeks ago. I don’t want to speak about that. But one of the answers you had a few weeks ago.”

He refused to confirm whether this was a reference to allegations made at the start of November that Manchester City had circumvented Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations.

He added: “I know that we have to do better than what we are doing, absolutely, we have to do better, but one thing is to do better and another is to compare ourselves with what Manchester United was in the past because it is impossible.”