Paper Round: United need 'two more years' to become top European contenders, says Jose Mourinho

It's Thursday's Paper Round on Olomoinfo Blog. Jose Mourinho has taken steps to manage expectations on his squad as the Premier League prepares to kick off.

Mourinho needs 'two years' for European success

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho makes Thursday’s back pages after claiming he needs another two years before his club can really be contenders in Europe, again. Mourinho is quoted by the Daily Star as having said that despite being a “giant” club, United cannot depend on it’s reputation alone to compete for major titles.

He said: “We have a giant on our chest which is really heavy, but we don’t compare to the biggest clubs in Europe right now.

“Because Manchester United is a real giant, it doesn’t matter if the club is somewhat far away from that level for three, four, five or 10 years…But our job is to try to bring the football team back to that stature.” 

Our view: Mourinho might be right. United at this point can not be compared to the likes of real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus. United are still know and recognized by their past deeds and history but the reality is that United need to step up and that may take some time.

Whodunit? Paper promises explosive top-six revelations

The big story of Thursday’s papers is an “explosive” interview of a Premier League “top-six star” by The Sun, the identity of who was not known at the time of writing. The only clues provided on Wednesday night was the silhouette of the mystery man and some choice quotes from the piece revealing that the player would be prepared to leave the club, feels the club needs to buy more “world-class players” and, perhaps unsurprisingly, he’d like to win some trophies.

Mourinho made moves for Willian

Chelsea winger Willian has revealed he came close to leaving West London in favour of a reunion with former coach, Jose Mourinho at Manchester United. The 29-year-old claimed there were “quite a few” conversations between Mourinho – who he says “likes me a lot” - and his agent, but no deal was reached thanks to Chelsea’s refusal to negotiate.

Our view: With the difficulty and the amount of money United spent to bring Matic to United even at a time when he was not guaranteed first team football in Chelsea and the subsequent arrival of Bakayoko putting this place in the team at risk, you would tell that Chelsea will not even have entertained a move with a more first team regular like William.