Mourinho wants Barcelona defender at Manchester United

Manchester, November 10: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho wants Barcelona's Samuel Umtiti to strengthen his defence, according to reports.

The Portuguese boss is at logger heads with the Manchester United board over funds to sign new players in January as he is not happy with the current squad.

Mourinho has made a statement of intent by putting the France international on his winter wishlist.

Despite spending £300million in less than 18 months, Mourinho has made a centre-half top of his priority list.

He splashed out £30million on Victor Lindelof from Benfica but the 23-year-old has played just 68 minutes of Premier League football since his summer arrival and has failed to impress.

Question marks also remain over Chris Smalling with the centre-back recently dropped from the England side by Gareth Southgate.

Mourinho has come to the realisation that his side aren't strong enough to challenge bitter rivals Manchester City for the Premier League title.

The Red Devils are already eight points behind Pep Guardiola's men following their 1-0 defeat at Chelsea last weekend and Mourinho, therefore, wants to bolster his defence signing Barcelona defender Samuel Umtiti.

Signing Umtiti from the clutches of Barcelona will not be an easy task for the Red Devils as the Frenchman is destined to become one of the leading defenders in the next few years and the Blaugrana will not want to lose him.

Even if they agree to sell the former Lyon man, it will not be on the cheap and that is for sure.

The Mirror claim he has a £53million release clause in his deal at Barcelona and Mourinho believes it could prove to be a bargain in the long run if he can lure him to Old Trafford.

Meanwhile, the Red Devils continue to be linked with Antonie Griezmann as Atletico are set to sign Diego Costa in January.