Jose Mourinho was the clear winner of transfer deadline day

Posted Sunday, September 03, 2017 by Express.co.uk

Jose Mourinho was the clear winner of transfer deadline day
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho got what he wanted from the transfer window

AT the end of a week of frantic negotiations, dramatic bids and crushing disappointments, there was one winner. Jose Mourinho.

The Manchester United manager did not sign or sell. He got his business done early, surged to the top of the table, sat out the last few days of the transfer window and watched his rivals fail in frustrating fashion.

Transfer deadline day is a spectator sport. The chances are that Mourinho enjoyed the view. Manchester City failed to sign Alexis Sanchez and Jonny Evans. Liverpool could not get Virgil van Dijk or Thomas Lemar. Arsenal landed neither Lemar nor Evans. Tottenham did not end up with Ross Barkley or Andre Gomes.

But the chances are that Mourinho most savoured the sight of Chelsea floundering. Barkley performed a U-turn and rejected a £35million move to Stamford Bridge. Antonio Conte opened the bidding for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and saw him go to Liverpool instead. He wanted Fernando Llorente in two transfer windows but the Swansea striker became a Tottenham player. He ended up with Italian defender Davide Zappacosta and Leicester midfielder Danny Drinkwater. Spending £58m on squad players should be scant consolation.

Mourinho has memories of a terrible deadline day at Chelsea. In 2015, the reigning champions ended up with defenders Michael Hector and Papy Djilobodji. Between them, they have played one minute for the club. Conte’s buys will feature more, but this scarcely seemed a success.

Arsenal proved an entire summer can come down to a few hours of panic. Try finding a masterplan in their sudden £92m offer for Monaco midfielder Lemar. Or when they accepted City’s £60m bid for Sanchez, then changed their mind. Mourinho may prefer to see him in London when the Chilean could have made City unstoppable. But Arsenal have only postponed his exit. The gamble of keeping the unhappy winger will only be justified if he scores enough goals to take them into the top four.

Liverpool can trumpet Oxlade-Chamberlain’s arrival. It is not often a player turns down Chelsea to join them. But Jurgen Klopp’s midfield has been in perfect working order and he still has Philippe Coutinho to come back after rejecting Barcelona’s bids. His defence has not been functioning as smoothly. Van Dijk may have made more of a difference.

Pep Guardiola needed a centre-back almost as much. Instead Evans stayed at West Bromwich Albion. The City boss may have to use Eliaquim Mangala, the £42m misfit. A side with a £200m makeover this summer might have a soft underbelly.

Manchester United apart, Spurs had the best day of the big six. Llorente is an upgrade on Vincent Janssen as Harry Kane’s deputy. Right-back Serge Aurier has replaced the sold Kyle Walker. They can hold out hope of signing Barkley in the future.

But Everton thought they would get £35m for Barkley on Thursday. They may end up with nothing for the homegrown talent. Financially, they may have had the worst deadline day of all.

Plenty of others suffered. Brighton and Newcastle really needed a striker. Neither got one. At least Swansea can celebrate landing Portuguese prodigy Renato Sanches from Bayern Munich, Leicester may got a coup by borrowing Austrian defender Aleksandar Dragovic, West Brom did well to borrow Paris Saint-Germain’s Grzegorz Krychowiak and Crystal Palace have been reunited with defender Mamadou Sakho, who kept them up last season.

But late coups are rarities. The best deals are often done much earlier. Mourinho knows that. Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic are already flourishing. No wonder United did not need to panic at the last minute.