Your bet on how early into the season José Mourinho would launch his first broadside at a rival manager is a wash, we’re afraid.
That’s because the Manchester United boss hasn’t even waited until matchday one to have a go at not one but two men in charge of a couple of the Premier League’s top clubs – and his predecessor at Old Trafford.
In his latest press conference, Mourinho said it was “not ethical” for rival coaches to badmouth United’s transfer policy. And as a man who has previously dodged questions about his players picking up deliberate ‘tactical’ red cards, he clearly has a strong sense of right and wrong.
“There are things that when I do are not ethical and when others do it everything is normal and nobody says that,” Mourinho added.
“I do not speak about the others. They can do what they want.”
United have spent more than £50m on Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, as well as agreeing to fork out a small fortune for Zlatan Ibrahimović’s wages, and the rumoured nine-figure fee for Paul Pogba would see their summer expenditure nearly treble.
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And it is the Pogba deal which has attracted the attention of Klopp and Wenger.
That would take their spending above the combined total of Liverpool and Arsenal, both of whom have hardly been shy when it comes to parting with big money for new arrivals.
Arsenal emptied their pockets to the tune of £34m for Granit Xhaka, while Sadio Mané set Klopp’s team back a similar amount.
But Mourinho has stuck to his guns, saying “We made decisions and decided to bring four players, not 10, that are Manchester United level.”
That fourth player is yet to be announced, but we’re pretty confident we know who it will be.
Meanwhile he used a question about how his teams play as an opportunity to put a Grand Canyon-sized distance between himself and former United boss Louis van Gaal.
When asked: “A Jose Mourinho team players differently to a Louis van Gaal team. Are your players responding to what you’re trying to teach them?” he replied: “I think your words are very correct because you say my teams are different to Mr Van Gaal’s teams and that is correct.
“I want to make it clear that I’m not saying my teams are better, or have better ideas, or my principles of play are better, not at all [translation: that’s exactly what I *am* saying]. So your question was correct. Yes, my teams are different to Mr Van Gaal.”
And we thought he was supposed to be your friend, Jose?
