Jose Mourinho says Manchester United can no longer kill off rivals Arsenal and Tottenham by buying their best players

End of an era | Mourinho says it's impossible to buy the best players from their rivals
Matthew Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images
Richard Parry5 February 2017

Jose Mourinho concedes that the goalposts have moved in English football since the days of Sir Alex Ferguson, and that Manchester United can no longer steamroll their rivals by cherry-picking their best players.

Ferguson famously signed to Robin van Persie from Arsenal ahead of the 2012-13 season, with the Dutchman firing United to the title – the last of their record 20 league championships – while the likes of Michael Carrick and Dimitri Berbatov were plucked from Tottenham in 2004 and 2008 respectively.

United has been linked with moves for Tottenham stars Danny Rose and Harry Kane, but Mourinho insists the days of buying their rivals best players are over.

"Football has changed in the three years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired…This is the new football,” Mourinho told reporters.

"Do you think I can go to Tottenham and buy two players to kill Tottenham? I can't. I cannot go to Arsenal and buy their two best players, or go to Chelsea and bring two of the players that I love very, very much. That time is over.

"The situation where you could start to become the champions by attacking your opponents is over in this country. If you get a player from a top club, you only get a player those clubs don't want to keep.

"You cannot attack your rivals any more. It used to be that when one of the big clubs was getting stronger, another of the big clubs was getting weaker.

"The problem we are finding is that we are getting stronger but so are the others - they are getting powerful. That means we have to grow up again and it is going to take more time."

Manchester United, currently in sixth position, can close the gap on the top four with victory over Leicester City on Sunday.

Premier League table

Pos Team P W D L GD Pts
1 Chelsea 24 19 2 3 34 59
2 Tottenham 24 14 8 2 30 50
3 Manchester City 24 15 4 5 20 49
4 Arsenal 24 14 5 5 24 47
5 Liverpool 24 13 7 4 22 46
6 Man United 24 12 9 3 15 45
7 Everton 24 11 7 6 13 40
8 West Brom 24 10 6 8 2 36
9 West Ham 24 9 4 11 -9 31
10 Watford 24 8 6 10 -11 30
11 Stoke City 24 7 8 9 -7 29
12 Burnley 24 9 2 13 -9 29
13 Southampton 24 7 6 11 -7 27
14 Bournemouth 24 7 5 12 -12 26
15 Middlesbrough 24 4 9 11 -8 21
16 Leicester City 24 5 6 13 -17 21
17 Swansea City 24 6 3 15 -25 21
18 Hull City 24 5 5 14 -25 20
19 Crystal Palace 24 5 5 15 -13 19
20 Sunderland 24 5 4 15 -18 19

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