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"I want, I need a striker" - coy Mourinho dances around transfer talk

Jose Mourinho still has business to attend to in the transfer market.  The Tottenham manager may...



Off The Ball Radio

"I want, I need a striker" - coy Mourinho dances around transfer talk

Jose Mourinho still has business to attend to in the transfer market. 

The Tottenham manager may have made three signings ahead of Sunday's Premier League opener with Everton, but he's heading like Oliver back to the club's top table with an empty bowl.

Matt Doherty and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg may have arrived for £15million (€16.2m) apiece, and Joe Hart on a free, but more?

"Yes, I want, I need a striker," Mourinho told his first press conference of the season, "But I want to make it very, very clear that the club – the structure above me – knows that I need a striker and also wants a striker.

"Are we going to get one? I honestly believe so. For the balance of the squad, the team needs it because in this moment the squad is getting very balanced, with different options for different positions.

"Especially after the gift we had from the EFL and UEFA, that gives me after 20 years of football a unique experience of playing Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday for two consecutive weeks.

"We realise that more than ever we need that. So, yes, we’re working on it."

Mourinho's first steps in English football may have been walked in expensive shoes purchased by Roman Abramovich, but a change in postcode has brought a change in attitude.

The Spurs boss says his current employers can't compete with the deep pockets of more spend-happy clubs, "The other day Jurgen [Klopp] was saying that Liverpool is not a club of oligarchs and that belongs to countries.

"We are the same. We cannot go to the market and spend a fortune on players.

"But we all – we all, I want to make that clear – are working hard to give good balance to the squad and that good balance would to get one more striker to the team."

Asked if Tottenham can compete with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City's spending, Mourinho replied, "Good for them. If the clubs can do it, and if that’s their priority and if there’s no financial fair play for some clubs and they have the opportunity to do it, good for them.

"Honestly I don’t envy them. They are what they are, they do what they do.

"To be honest also, I’m so happy with the squad I have.

"That fact that we managed to improve it with Joe, Doherty and Hojbjerg makes me even happier with the squad that we have, but doing little final touch that I believe we’re going to do, I’d be more than happy to face the season, even the non-human month we have ahead of us. I'm optimistic."

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Joe Hart Jose Mourinho Matt Doherty Mourinho Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg Premier League Spurs Tottenham Tottenham Hotspur