Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho believes he needs to spend even more money despite already outspending most of his rivals.

Mourinho wasn’t a happy man after his drew dropped points at home to Burnley. He came to the conclusion that he needed to spend more money on improving his squad, despite possessing the second-most expensively assembled squad in the Premier League.

It sounds like yet another deflection from his team’s struggles, but it’s worth highlighting just how much more he’s spent than his rivals, especially Arsenal.

Since Mourinho became United manager in 2016, he has spent £314m on six players. In that time, Arsenal have invested £144m. For Arsenal, £52m of that was spent on their record signing, Alexandre Lacazette.

wenger lacazette
Lacazette with Wenger signing his deal.

That record has been surpassed twice by Mourinho at United, who spent £76m on Romelu Lukaku and £94m on Paul Pogba. All of this is on top of the spending United did before Mourinho became manager.

Under Louis van Gaal, they spent £67m to sign Angel di Maria and £54m to sign Anthony Martial. So it’s really quite something for a Manchester United manager to be complaining about not spending enough.

It’s even more laughable when you consider the comparable levels of success both clubs have had in recent years. Since United last won the league, they’ve won one League Cup, one FA Cup and the Europa League.

Arsenal have won three FA Cups, having spent much less. They’ve also finished above United in the Premier League table in every season since that title win in 2013. Perhaps, then, the problem lies elsewhere for Mourinho and United.