Jose Mourinho has confirmed Manchester United intend to sign two central midfielders if Marouane Fellaini leaves at the end of the season. Fellaini, 30, is about to enter the last two months of his contract after he rejected United’s offer of a new deal and the club refused to sell him in the January transfer window. It is understood United are resigned to the Belgian, who moved to Old Trafford for £27.5million in 2013, leaving.
Michael Carrick clarified last month he would retire in May to take up a full-time coaching at United, depriving Mourinho of two senior central midfielders. The MEN revealed last month Mourinho would prefer to make two central midfield additions in the summer amid interest in Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Fred and Napoli’s Jorginho, and the Portuguese suggested more players could leave United in the close season. “We are going to invest the basic to improve our squad,” Mourinho said. “We need to find a replacement for Michael Carrick, if Marouane Fellaini leaves; we need to find a replacement for Marouane Fellaini. “There is always in the group of players, in the squad, there is always a player or a couple of players, they are not playing a lot, and they will try obviously to leave.
“So we are going again to touch our squad and to believe that more than spend, spend, spend, is probably the evolution of our players. We have some young players that need to get with both hands opportunities with their evolution, so let’s see. “But in this moment, I don’t even think about next season or the final, I think about Arsenal because we need one point to finish top four but we need seven points to finish second and we deserve to finish second and we have to finish second.” United are on 74 points in the Premier League with four games to play, with the treks to Brighton and West Ham bookended by the visit of Arsenal next week and Watford on the final weekend of the season. United could end the season on 86 points but Mourinho is still annoyed by three of their domestic defeats. “I keep saying that I think we should have probably eight, nine 10 more points than we had,” Mourinho added. “We could finish this season with 88, 89, 90 points.
“Not acceptable: The last defeat. Not acceptable: The performance at Huddersfield. Not acceptable: The performance at Newcastle. So we lost a few matches that we should do better. “Can we improve next season? Let’s try. Can Manchester City keep this level or improve this level? Only they can say. But if they have the team they have and if they are going to invest on top of the team they have of course is going to be very difficult for us.” Mourinho claimed United’s season should be deemed a success if they amass at least 81 points and finish second but expects to be ‘killed’ if he fails to supplement it with an FA Cup. “When I don’t win [trophies], you kill me,” he claimed. “Because I almost do that all the time, when I don’t do it, you kill me, which is what you are all ready to do.”
