José Mourinho: I’ve plucked juiciest orange from tree

Mourinho, with United vice-chairman Ed Woodward, has agreed a contract extension until 2020

MANCHESTER UNITED/MAN UTD VIA GETTY IMAGES

Claims from City, whether from club officials or the head coach Guardiola, that they had ended their pursuit of Sánchez over fears that his wage demands would “destabilise” the club, have amused Mourinho.

The United manager accused City of sour grapes, although he used an analogy involving another fruit to explain his theory. “When you see the tree with amazing oranges at the top of the tree and cannot get there, you say, ‘Oh, I got the lower ones because I don’t like the ones at the top,’ ” Mourinho said.

“You like the ones at the top. They are so nice, so orange, so round, so full of juice, but you cannot get there, so you say, ‘I don’t want to go there,’ or, ‘I didn’t like it, I prefer the other ones.’ It reminds me of that story.”

To make doubly sure his message got across, Mourinho then delivered another dig at Guardiola, who claimed last week that paying Sánchez’s £350,000-a-week wages would have been destabilising.

When asked if he believed City’s version of events, Mourinho replied: “I don’t know. I know that if other clubs did not get him it’s not a problem of money, for sure.

“That’s not a problem of money. You go and analyse the numbers and Manchester City spent more money than us, Chelsea spent more money than us, I think even Everton spent more money than us.”

United’s accounts will show that United paid no transfer fee for Sánchez, but the eye-watering £20 million signing-on fee they parted with for the 29-year-old has caused consternation in some quarters, as have his wage.

But Mourinho insists that United have not paid over the odds. “When people speak about salaries, first of all I have many doubts about the numbers that are written,” he said. “Secondly, we have to put things in perspective. How much would Alexis Sánchez cost in normal transfer, club-to-club, as a player with two or three years of contract?

“I would say roughly between £100 million and £150 million. You put things in perspective. You go to the numbers that the club didn’t pay on the transfer. You go to the numbers that the club pays in salaries, which are obviously higher than others, but you put things in perspective.

“You get a calculator and you arrive at different conclusions.”

Martin Keown arrived at a conclusion that has annoyed Mourinho. The former Arsenal defender labelled Sánchez “the biggest mercenary in football” for joining United after running his contract down to the final six months.

Mourinho dismissed that claim. “Not just in football but everywhere, in every area, I think we work also for money,” he said. “I know he [Sánchez] has a big passion for football. I know he wanted to leave Arsenal. Obviously, he wanted to be paid according to his quality, according to the perspective and — one thing people sometimes forget — according to the risk.

The away dressing room at Yeovil Town, where United will prepare for tonight’s fourth-round tie, is slightly smaller than the changing areas they are used to

TWITTER/YEOVIL

“The player that lets his contract arrive until the end is a player playing and training every day at the limit of risk, a risk other players don’t have. When a player signs his contract for three, four, five years, a player doesn’t have that risk. When a player lets his contract go until the end, every day he is playing in the risk. Imagine him a couple of years ago with same injury as [James] McCarthy [the Everton midfielder who broke his leg on Saturday].”

So was the deal to sign Sánchez a bargain, then?

“Expensive or cheap? Honestly, I think it was fair,” Mourinho said. “I cannot say that it was expensive because it wasn’t, I cannot say it was cheap because if you add all the values of his contract, it’s not also cheap.

Mourinho said Sánchez is worth more than £100m in normal circumstances

JASON CAIRNDUFF/REUTERS

“But I think it’s a very good deal for us and the player has a fantastic contract. It’s a contract according to his qualities as a player and according to the situation — no transfer fee.”

Mourinho also aimed a jibe at Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who has moved to Arsenal as part of the swap deal.

“Could he perform better with us? Could I take more from his talent? Maybe,” Mourinho said. “Could he give a little more also to adapt to us? Maybe, but I don’t have regrets.”

Mourinho claimed that the Armenia forward had taken a step down by joining Arsenal, who are sixth in the table.

“Alexis changed from a fantastic club to a giant club and Mkhi changed [a giant club] for a fantastic club,” he said.

Mourinho has warned his other attacking players that they will have to fight hard to win a place in the team.

“Now we have five attacking players of high quality, [Juan] Mata, [Marcus] Rashford, [Romelu] Lukaku, [Anthony] Martial, Alexis,” Mourinho, who had also praised Jesse Lingard’s “evolution” earlier in his press conference, said.

“It is fantastic for me and for the team. If the players one day are on the bench and don’t like it, I’m happy with that.”