WHY SAY ANYTHING?

José Mourinho has said all along that he wanted four players during this transfer window. He also said, all along, that he would be happy with three. Now we would never accuse Mourinho of anything so crass as lying but we do think he has been economical with the truth.

The, “three is OK” statement even sounds a little forced, as if designed to make Dithering Ed Woodward realise that he still hasn’t delivered on all of his manager’s requested signings. If Mourinho is genuinely happy with three then why does he keep reminding anyone who will listen that he originally asked for four.

According to the informed press, Gareth Bale may well be that fourth signing as he doesn’t appear to be able to do anything right at Real Madrid at the moment. He can’t get into the team and, when he comes off the bench, he can’t score so it may be that Zinedine Zidane feels that the time is right to cash in on him and, if he does, who is always there to try and grab a Real Madrid reject? Manchester United, of course!

Bale, at 28, would actually be a decent signing for United as he would address the problem they have in the wide areas. At present Mourinho is constantly playing either Marcus Rashford or Anthony Martial out wide and they are both doing a reasonable job when asked. The problem is that they are both strikers and a lot of their goal threat is lost when played out of position.

Bale could play left or right side and would certainly complement the likes of Romelu Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimović with his crosses. He would also be expected to score twenty or more goals per season so there would definitely be advantages in signing him.

He would, however, be another one for the “here and now” as his age means that he probably has four more years at his peak.

The same would have to be said had United secured the signing of Ivan Perisić from Inter Milan. Mourinho isn’t looking too far into the future.

We at WSA would prefer if the club signed a player like Thomas Lemar, who would cost less than Bale and is only 21. But hey, what do we know?

Manchester City seem likely to sign Alexis Sánchez and Pep Guardiola is mulling over the prospect of having to send Raheem Sterling in the opposite direction.

This eventuality should, if at all possible, be avoided as Sterling is still young and should improve.

At this late stage of the transfer window though, it is hardly surprising that Arsenal, having finally, and wisely, decided to let Sánchez go, want a replacement as part of the deal.

At present Sterling is a hit and miss player and, in truth, was City’s worst player against Bournemouth. He frequently gave the ball away or just carelessly lost possession and his goal, although timely, was also lucky.

Guardiola has to look into his crystal ball and decide whether Sterling is ever going to be as good as Sánchez. If the answer is; no he isn’t, then he has to send him off to Arsenal. He may as well have a player like Sánchez who will start every game than a good prospect like Sterling who will start every other game or even be dropped for longer periods.

He may very well be criticised by some of the fans if he includes Sterling in the deal but that will soon be forgotten once Sánchez has scored a couple of goals and picked up the man-of-the-match award in his first game.

But, as we said earlier, keeping Sterling AND buying Sánchez would be the preferred outcome.

So these are two deals which may, or may not, go through this transfer window. If they do then both teams will be strengthened. If they don’t, then neither team will be significantly less of a threat for the title.

That’s just how it is in Manchester these days.