Jose Mourinho makes thinly-veiled dig at Manchester City over Kyle Walker move
The Manchester United boss appeared to aim a playful jab at the Red Devils' arch rivals by suggesting he wouldn't spend money at the same rate Pep Guardiola and City have
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Your support makes all the difference.Jose Mourinho has made a thinly-veiled dig at Manchester City's summer spending and their £54million deal for Kyle Walker ahead of the first-ever Manchester derby on foreign soil on Thursday.
Pep Guardiola has already splashed over £120m this summer with Bernardo Silva, Ederson and Walker already arriving in big money deals with Benjamin Mendy of Monaco and Real Madrid's Danilo set to follow them.
Jose Mourinho has, by his own standards, enjoyed a more circumspect window with only Romelu Lukaku and Victor Lindelof moving to Old Trafford.
And speaking about the market the Manchester United boss appeared to aim a playful jab at the Red Devils' arch rivals by suggesting he wouldn't spend money at the same rate Guardiola and City have.
"Everybody knows because I said it, very objective I would like four players and asked for four players," he said. "I'm ready to go from four to three because the market is difficult, because some clubs they think the market is different from others.
"We are not a club that is not ready to buy and buy and buy non-stop. We are not a club that is ready to pay what clubs wants us to pay, so I am ready to go from four to three. With these three, I just give a better balance to the team, to the squad and better conditions to compete."
Walker is set to make his first City appearance at the Houston Texans' NRG Stadium having arrived from Tottenham in a deal that could become a world record fee for a defender.
Asked if that sum had surprised him, Mourinho said: "It doesn't surprise me, really. It doesn't surprise me because I keep saying there is big economic power in every club that allows the clubs to say no or to say, 'You pay what I want or you don't get it'.
"I can imagine that Man City would like to pay £25million for Kyle. I can imagine that. But I am sure that they knocked on Spurs' door and were told, 'This is the price'. If you don't pay, you don't get.
"Then you have the option to pay or have the option to say no, so the market will be always what people ask and what people pays. The strange thing is that now I am used to paying or seeing teams paying big amounts for big players - and now everybody is paying big amounts for good players.
"There is a difference between good players and big players, and now the figures go really crazy also for normal players."
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