Jose Mourinho has unleashed a clear dig at Arsene Wenger and Jurgen Klopp by reacting to their comments surrounding Manchester United’s signing of Paul Pogba for an excess of £100 million.
Over a week ago, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said: “If you bring one player in for £100 million and he gets injured, then it all goes through the chimney. The day that this is football, I’m not in a job anymore, because the game is about playing together.”
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger echoed those sentiments a few days later, calling the fee “completely crazy”.
Now, having withered his management colleagues criticisms, Mourinho has come out firing through Man United’s in-house TV station, MUTV.
“When I heard some of the comments and heard some of the managers criticizing that, I don’t think they ever have this problem because, to have this problem, you need to be at one of the top clubs in the world. So at Man United it can happen.”
The reality is that Mourinho’s correct. While Arsenal and Liverpool make under $100 million in sponsorship revenue each year, United make over $200 million through sponsorships with Adidas, Chevrolet and Aon alone.
The list of official partners and sponsors for United includes an official wine partner (Casillero del Diablo), official office equipment partner (Epson), official global noodle partner (Nissin Foods Group) and an official paint partner (Kansai Paint).
Manchester United’s signing of Pogba included a ridiculous Adidas campaign surrounding the entire ordeal, a Paul Pogba body double and graphic designers making subtle changes to his famously chameleon-like hair.
Only at Manchester United. Photo: @ManUtd | Twitter
In essence, the transfer is absurd. We try, as fans of football, to quantify the inherent value in spending over £100 million on a single asset but the mind boggles.
United wax lyrically about their commitment to youth and the excellence of their academy, but all of this hullabaloo was over the return of a player they’d let go for just £850,000 four years ago.
Mourinho’s taunt is like U2 telling the Grateful Dead that they’ll never be able to incorporate the many genres of pop music.
It’s obviously true that Liverpool and Arsenal were never going to sign Pogba, but, to support both Klopp and Wenger, United’s transfer dealings don’t hold any water with regards to team development.
United have brought in Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the exact moment when Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial looked set to progress as extremely promising, young forwards.
In Pogba, they’ve signed a midfielder whose tactical flexibility has been widely questioned, particularly after Euro 2016. Pogba will undoubtedly make United a better team, but it remains to be seen how a manager like Mourinho, who typically favors solidity in midfield, will deploy Pogba, a midfielder who’s at his best going forward in a box-to-box role.
Klopp, in his first full season at Liverpool, appears to be going about piecing his side together with a focus on potential and upside.
Wenger refuses to be drawn into the kind of mega-deals that define modern football — much to the chagrin of Arsenal supporters worldwide. However, after finishing second last season, it’s understandable that he believes the pieces are in place to do one better.
With Mourinho, the task at hand is more convoluted. It’s without question that he’ll believe his side can capture the Premier League title, but it’s an almost certainty that the accomplishment would look nothing like how his 2014-15 Chelsea side achieved it.
The signing of Pogba is a watershed moment for United, but does it announce a return to dominance or the sacrifice of team building in favor of cultivating a global brand image?
Follow me on Twitter: @ConmanFleming
