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It is the first weekend of November, 11 matches
into what can still be legitimately referred to as the new Premier
League season, and Arsene Wenger is floating the idea of Jose Mourinho surpassing his own domestic record by winning the title with "100 points."
Over the past three transfer windows, Wenger has spent a net £88.8
million on transfer fees and pushed Arsenal's wage bill on to a par with
Chelsea's.
A few days earlier, Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal could be found talking of feeling "very lousy," per Jamie Jackson of The Guardian, about an initiation at Manchester United that has clearly not followed a famously self-confident plan.
Already on his third starting-formation change of the campaign, Van
Gaal has elected to emphasise defence in an attempt to squeeze back into
the Champions League again, while stating that United's restoration
“will take three years, I hope.”
Alastair Grant/Associated Press
In his first summer at the club, the Dutchman oversaw an
unprecedented investment of £132 million in transfer fees and a gross
inflation of player salaries.
Mourinho? In just 17 months back at Stamford Bridge, with a Financial
Fair Play (FFP)-restrained wage bill and net spend of £42.25 million,
he has transformed an unbalanced, Barcelona-wannabe squad into a group
eight points ahead of the defending champions that has already drawn
twice in Manchester and won in Liverpool.
The expenditure on transfers works out at one Mesut Ozil or
two-thirds of an Angel Di Maria (two footballers Mourinho brought to
Real Madrid to the club's significant sporting and financial gain).
The neutral observer would be forgiven for thinking that United
missed a trick in the spring of 2013 in deciding that David Moyes was a
better choice to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as manager than the
soon-to-be-ex-Madrid coach, Mourinho. If you are a Manchester United
supporter you'd be forgiven for harbouring baser thoughts.
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