Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho defends price tags of Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba while firing jibe at rivals' reckless spending

• e-mail

Jose Mourinho has defended the £164million that Manchester United have spent on Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba in the last 12 months, but questioned the huge fees lavished on what he considers to be lesser players.

United broke the world record to sign Pogba for £89m from Juventus last summer, then bought Lukaku from Everton earlier this month in a deal that could reach £90m with add-ons.

However, Mourinho is more concerned about the way other Premier League clubs are spending ‘£30m, £40m, £50m in such an easy way’.

Jose Mourinho has defended the £164million spent on Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba

The United boss praised Tottenham’s transfer strategy and suggested Spurs were happy to let England defender Kyle Walker join Manchester City for £50m because they had an equally good, younger replacement in Kieran Trippier.

‘We spent big money on a striker because, with strikers, you either spend or you don’t get,’ Mourinho said of the Lukaku deal.

‘We spent because of what happened to Zlatan (Ibrahimovic) and we cannot allow ourselves to be without an important, strong striker for the first six months of the season.

‘I don’t think it kills football as the big clubs will always have the potential to produce this kind of money and not to be in problems.

United splashed big money to make Pogba and Lukaku two of the world's most expensive

Mourinho admits elite clubs have to spend big when it comes to strikers, or miss out 

‘The problem is with the other group, which is a big group. The other one is where you have a hundred transfers and that is the dangerous area of the market. That’s what worries me a little bit because now we speak about £30m, £40m, £50m in such an easy way.’

Turning his attention to City and Tottenham, Mourinho said: ‘Everybody speaks about the dimension of the investment at Man City, but there is another team where I feel the dimension of their investment is phenomenal — Tottenham.

‘For me the dimension of their investment is amazing. They keep everybody they want to keep.

‘They sold Kyle Walker, I think, because they wanted to sell. And probably because they think Trippier is as good as Walker. And he’s younger than Walker.

‘Chelsea are champions and they buy now. We are halfway through the market and they buy (Antonio) Rudiger, (Tiemoue) Bakayoko and (Alvaro) Morata.

Mourinho feels Tottenham were right to sell £50m Kyle Walker to Man City, as they had backup

‘Every club makes different investments, but all of them are investing a lot to win the title.’

Speaking in Washington DC on the last leg of United’s tour of America, Mourinho claimed that his squad still lack the depth of world-class talent to be considered favourites for the Premier League title next season.

He said: ‘We are not the best squad in the world and we don’t have the best players in the world — or if we do, then we have some, not eight or nine or 10 like some other clubs have.

‘But we are better than last season and the spirit is fantastic. I don’t think we are big candidates for the title, but we are (candidates).’