Jose Mourinho has insisted that the €222m Paris Saint-Germain look set to pay for Neymar is ‘not expensive’ for the Brazil and Barcelona star’s services, claiming that the Samba star’s proven quality justifies his price-tag.
The Ligue 1 club are set to more than double the current world transfer record, set when Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United signed €105m for Paul Pogba last summer – and the Portuguese boss has opened up once again on how he judges transfer valued.
Quoted by the Manchester Evening News, the former Chelsea boss said: “When we paid that amount for Paul I told that he was not expensive. Expensive are the ones that get into a certain level without a certain quality.
Jose Mourinho on Nemanja Matic…
"His intelligence & his genius in the way he thinks will help him to be ready sooner rather than later." pic.twitter.com/HmzUt74iUD
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 3, 2017
“I think with Neymar it’s going to happen the same, I don’t think he’s expensive for £200m, I don’t think he’s expensive, I think he’s expensive the fact that now you are going to have more players of £100m and you are going to have more players at £80m and you are going to have more players at £60m.”
Mourinho also admitted that he is hoping for one more signing at Old Trafford before the start of the season, to join the Red Devils signings Romelu Lukaku, Victor Lindelof, and Nemanja Matic.
Speaking after his side beat Sampdoria in Dublin on Wednesday, Mourinho said: “The plan is to have a good squad, not to have a good team, it’s to have a good squad with options and we have important players injured for a long time, they are going to be back just by the end of the year, so our squad is not so big and we need options, we need different players.
“Lukaku, Martial and Rashford are all different players and we need everybody and it’s going to be good, it’s going to be fun to choose the team for every match, according to the plan, to the opponent, to our gameplan.
“So the squad is good and, as I told a few months ago, I was hoping for four players to improve the squad and the club did a fantastic job, absolutely fantastic, by getting three of them, which is difficult in the crazy market where we are now. To get three out of four, I thank the club for that. I would be happier if they gave me four of four but they did a great effort for me.”