José Mourinho knows everything about the Manchester United transfer chaos

José Mourinho returns to Old Trafford with Tottenham on Sunday and could be forgiven for smiling wryly at a situation he knows all too well.

Manchester United are once again in the middle of a transfer fight at the end of a window with just three days left until Monday’s deadline.

Mourinho’s frustration on the board two years ago helped create a toxic environment before his dismissal, and he will have been satisfied that Spurs beat his old club against the signings of Gareth Bale and Sergio Reguilon from Real Madrid.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is a very different animal, but even he is doing well to hide his concern after seeing that United’s transfer business has so far been limited to £ 40 million for Ajax’s Donny van de Beek. They are still in talks about Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho and other alternatives on the right wing, as well as Porto’s left-back Alex Telles.

It’s not a situation that Solskjaer could have imagined when he declared in April that United could use its wealth to ‘exploit’ the transfer market while other clubs battled the pandemic.

The United manager admitted on Friday that it was the wrong word and that United have been just as affected as everyone else by the Covid crisis.

“I think my writing in the running, ‘explode’, was bad,” he said. ‘I didn’t mean that in that sense, I meant that there might be players who have to move due to the situation.

‘At the moment there have been no such situations. We have lost a lot of money, as have other clubs ”.

Tottenham, meanwhile, turned down a £ 3 million loan offer from Paris Saint-Germain over disgruntled Dele Alli, and has told them they will not consider letting him go.

Mourinho signed Brazilian striker Carlos Vinicius on Friday night on loan from Benfica and still wants a central defender.

Vinicius increases Tottenham’s squad to 27 outfield players and Mourinho believes the club must eliminate some of the marginalized. They are desperate to change Danny Rose and Cameron Carter-Vickers. Tanguy Ndombele, Ryan Sessegnon, Jack Clarke, Juan Foyth, and Serge Aurier are also available.

“The transfer window is two-way,” Mourinho said. ‘Of course, we are not going to keep all the players in the squad above the normal numbers.

“I like to work normally with a squad of 22 players plus goalkeepers, and we will not be far from that number.

“It’s impossible to keep everyone happy when you have so many players.”