Jose Mourinho admitted that he wants to sign two more players this summer as Manchester United are desperate to challenge for the title in the upcoming Premier League season, but refused to talk about rumours linking the Red Devils with a move for Chelsea star Nemanja Matic.
Man Utd have splurged £75 million to rope in Romelu Lukaku from Everton and also signed Benfica defender Victor Lindelof for £30.8m plus add-ons.
However the Red Devils have missed out on Atletico Madrid star Antoine Griezmann, Real Madrid striker Alvaro Moarata and has release Zlatan Ibrahimovic from his contract due to a serious injury that almost threatened to bring an unceremonious end to the towering Swede’s illustrious footballing career.
Mourinho, who is ready to offer Zlatan a new Man Utd deal when he regains full fitness, believes that his squad needs more reinforcements as they return to Champions League football in the upcoming season and also because he has a number of long-term absentees.
Ahead of United’s first pre-season friendly against MLS side LA Galaxy, Mourinho said: “I would not like to be in [chief executive] Ed Woodward’s position negotiating because everything is really difficult.”
“So maybe we don’t get two, we get one, but we need one more to give us more options. We have players that belong to the squad but cannot play for next few months, [Marcos] Rojo, Ashley Young, Luke Shaw, if Zlatan stays.”
“We need two more players I would say, at least one, but I don’t want to say Matic or any other name because I don’t think it’s correct.”
Chelsea are holding on to Serbian midfielder Matic until they complete the signing of AS Monaco’s defensive midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko, which is believed to be on the verge of completion.
It is understood that Bakayoko’s arrival at the Stamford Bridge will pave way for Matic’s exit.
The Serbian player has been left out of the Blues’ pre-season tour, along with Diego Costa – but Jose Mourinho refused to comment anything about rumours of a possible reunion with his former player.
Mourinho said: “I can’t say any word about a player who is a Chelsea player. It’s the same with Morata, we have to respect the player, the club, the owner, the manager.”
“I don’t want to be disrespectful, we don’t have our door closed, we are not happy with just Lukaku and Lindelof. We need more, we wanted four, so I would say 50 per cent of the job is done, but I don’t want to say that because everything is so difficult.”
“Every club in the Premier League is powerful, has money to buy, to refuse to sell, and people don’t focus on the power to keep the players and refuse to sell.”
“I think the market is so strange, the prices are absolutely out of context, so the clubs without the power to sell, refuse to sell, are one step ahead and there are many clubs in the Premier League who refuse to sell their best players and that is fantastic and makes the competition so hard.”
