José Mourinho given £100m to buy more players he can slag and use as scapegoats

Manchester United are set to spend big in January. Again.

Manchester United will grant José Mourinho £100m to spend in the January transfer window, according to reports. Since taking over at Old Trafford in 2016, José Mourinho has spent over £300m on players. Three hundred million pounds. Those players include Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Nemanja Matić and Alexis Sánchez. Basically, United have not been tightening the purse strings under his tenure. But despite their grand expenditure, Mourinho has complained about not being backed by the board, after they refused to buy him a third centre-back in the summer, having already signed two for around £30m each: Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly. After a slow start to the season, Mourinho fell under serious pressure and the sack looked imminent. Third season syndrome was kicking in, and United looked ready to pull the trigger. But a slight upturn in results was enough to paper over the cracks and buy the coach some more time at the club. And it now looks as though United will back in in the January window and allow him to bring in even more players whom he will no doubt throw under the bus after their first mistake. With Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial's newly found form and confidence, Mourinho is in need of another player to pin the blame on after a loss, and will therefore go into the winter market. He is after a central defender and a goalscoring forward, after a dip in form has seen £75m Lukaku go nine games without a goal. Mourinho transfer signings at United:

• Paul Pogba - £94.5m
• Romelu Lukaku - £77m
• Fred - £53m
• Nemanja Matic - £40m
• Henrikh Mkhitaryan - £38m
• Eric Bailly - £35m
• Victor Lindelof - £32m
• Diogo Dalot - £20m
• Lee Grant - £1.5m
• Alexis Sanchez - swap deal
• Zlatan Ibrahimovic - free transfer

Mourinho was keen to sign Raphaël Varane in the summer, and United may have a chance of signing his left leg this winter if they commit to spending their entire budget on him. His other targets, Jerome Boateng and Harry Maguire, were not deemed as upgrades on the current defenders by the United board.