Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is ramping up the mind games against his former club Chelsea. He doesn’t buy Antonio Conte’s claims that his squad is too small and needs more players. Mourinho believes the reigning champions remain the favorites for the league title, and have no excuses for failure.
Mourinho also implied that Leicester City star Danny Drinkwater, who’s been consistently linked with a £40 million move to Stamford Bridge, could be close to joining the London club.
Mourinho said: “When people say, for example, Chelsea lost an important midfield player, if you lose one but you buy Bakayoko and Drinkwater for example, what’s the problem?
“The problem is when you sell and you don’t buy. When you sell and you keep buying, what’s the problem?”
By referencing Bakayoko, Mourinho is also likely alluding to Nemanja Matic, who he brought over to Old Trafford earlier this summer. Mourinho went on to add that Chelsea have all the money they need to buy players and be as competitive as possible.
“You are probably even stronger so I think every top team in the Premier League is strong enough, is potentially strong enough with the financial situation to be fighting for everything and when everybody is also in Europe, five in the Champions League and then two in the Europa League, you have the top seven teams playing for everything and all of them are strong,” Mourinho said.
Then the mind games escalated.
“For me the favorite is the champion,” the Portugese continued.
“Always. It doesn’t mean you are going to win it but I think it is the stamp that you have when you are champion, it is that the next season you are the favorite.”
Chelsea, who sacked Mourinho in December of 2015, had a disastrous opening week performance, losing badly at home to lowly Burnley. United were the polar opposite in their curtain raiser, looking as impressive as any team in the entire English top flight. Of course, for both sides, it’s just one match in a very long season, but you can circle the dates when United and Chelsea get together. The Blues will host the Red Devils on November 5th, with the clash at Old Trafford coming February 24th.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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