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Jose Mourinho

WASHINGTON DC. – Jose Mourinho has voiced concern over the eye-watering sums being paid for average players by English Premier League soccer clubs this summer.

Manchester United manager Mourinho has seen local rivals Manchester City spend £130 million just on three full-backs this summer, including £52m on Kyle Walker – who arguably was no longer first-choice at Tottenham.

And Mourinho fears football is heading into “dangerous” territory with some of the outlandish transfer fees being recklessly lavished on modest players.

But in a summer of exorbitant expenditure, the Manchester United manager believes his team face as great, if not greater, threat next season from a prudent Tottenham as free spending Manchester City and Chelsea in the battle for the Premier League title.

Mourinho defended the £75 million fee United paid to sign Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku from Everton this summer and the £89 million outlay on Paul Pogba 12 months ago and said he can see the logic in Paris St-Germain pursuing a world record £196 million deal for Barcelona forward Neymar.

But the Portuguese is worried the transfer market is being drastically altered by the willingness of some clubs to commit “£30 million, £40 million, £50 million in such an easy way” for players who are not realistically worth it.

United have so far balked at Tottenham’s £55 million valuation of England midfielder Eric Dier and Inter Milan’s demand for £49 million for Croatia winger Ivan Perisic while the likes of City paid Spurs £50 million for right back Kyle Walker and Everton bid £45 million for Iceland playmaker Gylfi Sigurdsson.

“I always thought the problem is not what you pay for these kind of [top] players, I don’t think the problem is what you pay for Pogba, I don’t think the problem is going to pay crazy for Neymar,” Mourinho said in Washington on the final leg of United’s pre-season tour of the US, where his side face Barcelona in the early hours on Thursday.

“I think the problem is with the other group which is a big group because players like Pogba, there is one or two [big] transfers [like that] per transfer window. The other ones are where you have 100 transfers and for me that is the dangerous area of the market.

“Some clubs are paying or they don’t buy because they don’t accept the numbers that are now ruling the market, or to do it they have to go the same levels and for me that’s what worries me a little bit because now we speak about £30 million, £40 million, £50 million in such an easy way.’’ – The Telegraph.