With any luck one or two redtop journalists will have read Jose Mourinho’s most recent transfer talk update:
“What I can also say is that it is a difficult transfer window and I don’t blame anyone — it is just a reality of things. The market is going in such a direction that many players are difficult to get, not to say impossible.”
The Man Utd boss added: “I would like four players – I asked for four players. And I’m ready to go from four to three because the market is difficult, some clubs think the market is different from others.
“We are not a club that is ready to buy and buy and buy non-stop. We are not a club that is ready to pay what the clubs want us to pay so I’m ready to go from four to three.”
What we have here is Jose doing his usual and distancing himself from responsibility of course.
But given the recent unsubstantiated hoo-hah over Eric Dier being ‘desperate’ to join the Red Devils, this could well indicate that United have been told that Dier is not for sale.