Manchester United's squad has cost them £690 million to assemble and is the third-most expensive set of players brought together in the history of the game. (Only PSG and Man City are ahead of them).
After today's 2-2 draw with Burnley at Old Trafford - in which they were rescued by Jesse Lingard after Zlatan Ibrahimovic stirred discomfiting memories of Falcao - Mourinho told the press that United are not true title contenders as they have not spent enough money.
The BBC's Simon Stone tweeted out part of his transcription of Mourinho's post-game press conference in which he asked how Mourinho would fix an "unacceptable" run of form that has yielded eight points from five games.
Here's how Mourinho responded:
When you say a club like Manchester United, do you think Milan is not as big as us?
You think they are not as big as we are? Do you think Real Madrid are not as big as we are? You think Inter Milan is not as big as we are?
There are many big clubs and you say big clubs, I know what is a big club. One thing is a big club and another thing is a big football team that you know is not one of the best teams in the world, so when you speak about responsibilities to win the Premier League, Tottenham does not have that responsibility.
Tottenham is not a club with the same history as us. Arsenal doesn't have the responsibility to win it, Chelsea doesn't have the responsibility to win it.
Manchester City buy the full-backs for the price of the strikers, so when you speak about big football clubs, you are speaking about the history of the club.
A member of the press followed up pointing out that Mourinho has spent £300 million as United manager.
It is not enough. The price for the big clubs is different than for the other clubs. The big historical clubs they are normally punished in the market for the history.
It is yet another example of Mourinho being critical of his players. This is more indirect than the "childish" remarks after the Leicester game, but it is increasingly clear that Mourinho is not happy with the squad at his disposal. But Mourinho should take more responsibility for the money that has been spent: Pep Guardiola has outspent Mourinho by £70 million since both men have taken over in Manchester which, if you judge by Mourinho's "historical big club" tax, is one top-class players, perhaps two at most.
When adjusted for net spend, Pep's surplus shrinks to less than £2 million: £138.1 million versus Mourinho's £136.2 million.
Does that really account for what will be a 15-point gap behind City should the latter beat Newcastle tomorrow? Or is it time for Mourinho to take a harder look at himself?
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