Man United to back Mourinho with cash in January

José Mourinho will be backed in January to strengthen Manchester United if the right deal is possible in what can be a difficult transfer window to find value.

The manager wants a central defender and goalscoring forward after unsuccessfully trying to sign each in the summer.

More than £100m is potentially available. Mourinho was interested in Real Madrid’s Raphaël Varane before the start of the season and United were prepared to pay that level of money for the 25-year-old had the transfer been possible. The same degree of finance remains.

Leicester City’s Harry Maguire and Bayern Munich’s Jérôme Boateng were two other Mourinho targets at centre-back but United declined to pursue them as the board did not believe either was an upgrade.

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This caused the manager some disquiet and it is understood he will be supported in the winter window should a player who can improve the squad become available.

After Sunday’s 2-1 win over Everton Mourinho pointed to the lack of recent collective firepower from Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford, highlighting how there has been only one goal from them in the past nine games.

Last January Alexis Sánchez was signed in a swap deal that took Henrik Mkhitaryan to Arsenal. The Chilean has been a disappointment but this has not discouraged the willingness to enter the winter market.