José Mourinho will get backing in January from Manchester United in order to strengthen the Red Devils, only if the right deals are struck, in a window that will prove difficult when finding value.

The manager wants a central defender and goalscoring forward,  both which he tried unsuccessfully to sign in the summer window.

More than £100m is potentially available for Mourinho. The Portuguese tactician was interested in Real Madrid’s Raphaël Varane before the start of the season and United were ready to pay the amount of money requested for the 25-year-old, however, the discussions were put to a halt. That same amount of money remains available.

Mourinho was also interested in Leicester City’s Harry Maguire and Bayern Munich’s Jérôme Boateng at centre-back positions but the club refused to go after them as the board did not believe either was an upgrade in their defensive capabilities.

After Sunday’s 2-1 win against Everton, Mourinho lamented at the goal drought from Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford, pointing to the fact that both of them have only scored one after nine games.

Last January witnessed the swap deal of Alexis Sánchez deal that took Henrik Mkhitaryan to Arsenal. The Chilean has been utterly disappointing but this has not dampened the willingness to enter the winter market.