Jose Mourinho made a lot of noise about Manchester United’s failure to land his desired transfer targets during the summer but, when 8pm arrived on Friday night, his gripes were a distant memory. Premier League football was back and United impressed during a 2-1 win over Leicester courtesy of goals from Paul Pogba and Luke Shaw. However, after the victory Mourinho continued – and eventually concluded – his tirade against the United board, who overruled his transfer market plans.
“I had my plans, and I had my plans for many months, and I find myself in the beginning of the Premier League with the market closed and I find myself in a situation which I thought was not a situation I thought I was going to be in,” Mourinho said. “But I think it is the last time I speak about it. It’s over, it’s finished, and the market is closed.” Mourinho was after a centre-back in the summer, with Toby Alderweireld, Jerome Boateng, Diego Godin, Harry Maguire and Yerry Mina all on his radar at one point or another. The board were reluctant to pursue Alderweireld and Boateng because it was deemed that both men would be expensive short-term fixes, while Harry Maguire was seen as overpriced and Yerry Mina’s agent’s fees were said to be ludicrous. Godin was targeted despite being 32 years old due to his low release clause but the player indicated no desire to leave Atletico Madrid.
United’s failure to recruit a centre-back in the summer meant Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof, signed for a combined £60million by Mourinho in previous windows, lined up in the defence against Leicester. They impressed but right-back Matteo Darmian didn’t, and it was a source of deadline-day frustration for some fans that Timothy Fosu-Mensah, who could’ve started in that position instead, was allowed to Fulham on loan. Darmian wasn’t dreadful against Leicester but he was by far United’s poorest defensive performer and struggled to contain Demarai Gray and James Maddison in a particularly unsteady first half.
In the absence of Antonio Valencia and Diogo Dalot, who are both injured, it made little sense to allow Fosu-Mensah to leave the club on deadline day when Darmian was the only fit alternative. Netherlands international Fosu-Mensah enjoyed an encouraging loan spell at Crystal Palace last term and featured heavily for United in pre-season. All of his appearances in the US came in the centre of defence but he has plenty of experience playing at full-back from his time at Selhurst Park and his few competitive run-outs for United. Mourinho received plaudits for his exciting team selection against Leicester but he would have raked in even more if the departed Fosu-Mensah had remained and started instead of United’s want-away Italian.
