How Mourinho Won it to Bring Sanchez to O.T

Alexis Sanchez

2 hours ago David McDonnell (The Mirror)

Sanchez is poised to join United from Arsenal after Mourinho convinced the club's hierarchy to spend the money

Manchester United's imminent capture of Alexis Sanchez is a huge victory for Jose Mourinho in his battle to match the spending of his immediate rivals.

"The problem is not the money we invest, the problem is the money the others invest," said Mourinho. "And it’s the problem that others with better squads, with better stability, with more options - they keep investing."

That message resonated with Woodward and the United hierarchy to the extent they put an exorbitant financial package of around £100m in place to blindside City and hijack their move for Arsenal star Sanchez, who is out of contract in six months.

Since Mourinho and Guardiola took over at United and City respectively in the summer of 2016, the former has overseen a gross spend on players of £286m. Guardiola. Meanwhile, has spent £387m, endorsing Mourinho’s belief that United need to match that financial outlay to have any chance of keeping pace with City.

Woodward, and the Glazer family who control the purse strings, have always insisted the money is there for Mourinho to spend on the players he wants, with the £89m and £75m outlays on Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku respectively proof of that commitment to spending big in the market.

But City and Paris Saint-Germain have begun spending on a new scale. Mourinho told Woodward and the United board they had to keep pace with this shift in the market, which is why they made their move for Sanchez and committed so much money towards landing him in a month when they are traditionally reluctant to do business.

While City claimed the figures required to land Sanchez this month were prohibitive in terms of the overall cost, United see the estimated £100m outlay – including the £35m transfer fee, signing-on fee, agent’s fee and the player’s wages – as a decent deal, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, valued at a similar fee, going the other way.

The capture of Sanchez from under the noses of their local rivals...READ MORE