Jose Mourinho 'calm' over Alexis Sanchez's transfer to Manchester United

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Jose Mourinho claims that the pending arrival of Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez will not distract him, or his players, as they focus on the pursuit of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League.

The visit to Burnley on Saturday offers Manchester United the chance to cut City’s lead at the top of the table to nine points, for a few hours at least, the first time it will have been in single digits since Pep Guardiola’s side won the Old Trafford derby at the start of December.

But more attention has been paid on the transfer involving Sanchez, with United’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan moving in the opposite direction, and the vast amount of money Mourinho’s club will be required to invest if they are to secure their target.

However, Mourinho insisted he was “calm” about the situation on the eve of the Burnley game and claimed not to even know why the transfer was dragging out, or whether Mkhitaryan agreeing terms with Arsenal is a prerequisite of the deal advancing.

“I don't know,” he said. “Sometimes people think transfers involve a lot the managers in the negotiations, I think it depends on the profile of the club, the way we establish our jobs and in my case when it goes to the table of negotiations I like to be out.

“I am out and I will just calmly wait for news, no more than that. I will speak with you if one day we sign him, I can speak with you about him and what he can bring to our team. He's an Arsenal player, he's not my player, there's no point in me speaking about something that may or may not happen.

“There is nothing new. I think clearly everybody knows that we are there and especially when Arsenal manager speaks so clearly like he did. There is no point in trying to hide or deny but it is not done at all. So in this moment, Mkhitaryan our player, Sanchez an Arsenal player and with a match tomorrow I want to switch off and focus on the most important thing, which is the match.”

It is believed that once United have sealed the signing of Sanchez, they will move onto another significant piece of business for the January transfer window - having Mourinho sign a new, long-term deal.

The United manager is being offered a two-year extension to his existing contract, due to expire at the end of next season, but is relaxed over the time scale for the signing.

He said: “My contract ends July 2019, so plenty of time to speak. I know that the club is happy and the owners, the board are happy, they know I am happy and when that's the case one day we decide to do something we will do it easily. But plenty of time.”

Whenever that contract is signed, Mourinho is clearly putting plans in place for this summer at Old Trafford and he admits that United’s pursuit of Sanchez is a break from the norm for him.

“I think the idea of the transfer market in mid-season, normally I say that is to help clubs that didn't work well in the summer,” he said. “I think that's for me the point of the January transfer window, is to help the clubs that didn't work well in the summer and they feel they have to do something in January to help what they didn't do well before.

“It's because of that we don't like to do in January because it shows that we didn't give our best, we didn't try our best and we don't like to do it. But if you have the chance to do some special players, some player in special circumstances, some player that you do in the summer and you have the chance to do it now.

“That's a special situation and you try to do it. It's as simple as that. If it happens, happens, and we are sure that it is for the good of the future of the team, if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen."

However, as the Sanchez move progresses, Mourinho is insistent that the move does not indicate an existing weakness in his squad but, rather, is a move made with an eye on the longer term.

“The team is lacking nothing,” he said. “It is not the point of lacking something or we desperately need something. It is just thinking about the improvement of the team in the future. If we have in our mind in the summer to improve the team in two or three positions, basically to improve the team in all the departments, if you have the chance to do something now it means that you don't do in the summer.

“Another thing is we get one or two players just to improve a little bit the squad and then in the summer you are going to do it again. No. In the summer, we would probably have three transfers to do. If we do one now, in the summer it is three minus one.