"We'll keep fighting" - insists Mourinho after Leicester win
Mourinho revealed he was puzzled when he heard Manchester United’s executive chief executive Ed Woodward use the word when speaking about this summer’s transfer strategy during his conference call with investors yesterday.
Woodward said there will be no huge turnover of players - “churn" as he calls it in business terms - at Old Trafford this summer after the wholesale ins and outs in 2015 and 2016.
And Mourinho agreed with the plan – once a friend had translated the word for him.
He said: “First of all, yesterday I had to ask a friend about ‘churn’ because I had no idea, it's a new word for my vocabulary.
“You have to learn every time you can and I thank Ed for that word because I didn't have an idea.
“He's completely right. Of course we speak about it, of course we speak about what next and we know that we have a squad that like every squad needs changes, but we know also that our squad has potential, our squad has good players, many of them in the best age, the age of evolution.
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Jose Mourinho has admitted he was confused by Ed Woodward
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Jose Mourinho believes Zlatan Ibrahimovic will stay at Manchester United
“Independent of the numbers – whether spend £1m, £10m or £100m - it's also about the philosophy, the idea and we look at it in this way.
“We prefer to bring two, three or four players, players that feel an idea, the football we try to play, players who can improve our squad.
“We are not interested in signing six or seven or sell six or seven, we are not going to play this game. We are stable, so we think our market in the summer will be soft, it will be natural, some players will leave, some players will come but in a very natural way so I think the word Ed used was a good one.”
Mourinho is convinced Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David De Gea will be at Old Trafford next season and is happy with a squad that is still in contention in four competitions.
He added: “You work with the players and you get to know the players better. You only know the players really when you work with them. Sometimes you get disappointed because you expect more and even in relation to this everything is balanced, I'm not negatively surprised with anyone.
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Jose Mourinho has heaped praise on Watford boss Walter Mazzarri
“I didn't have an incredible impact with some player so everything is balanced and I think our summer will be quite small.”
United take on Watford at Old Trafford tomorrow with Mourinho still angry at the way they lost 3-1 at Vicarage Road in September and wary of another slip-up that would further damage his top four hopes.
“I know they are very difficult and very defensive,” Mourinho said. "Walter is a very good coach, the team is well organised and then they have the capacity to hurt you on the counter-attack and set-pieces.
“They have the know-how, they have the experience, they have many players are coming from important clubs with great knowledge of high competition so I am waiting for a difficult match.”
Phil Jones is still out with a foot injury but Wayne Rooney is back after missing the win at Leicester through illness.
