Jose Mourinho has declared his desire to be a winner in his maiden season as Manchester United manager and discussed the ongoing work to develop his new squad.



Mourinho met the media for the first time as United boss on Tuesday morning, in a special press conference at Old Trafford. When asked about his aims for 2016/17, he replied: "It depends on the way you want to face it. I was never very good at playing with words, hiding behind words or hiding behind philosophies. I was always much more aggressive in my approach, even with the risks that can bring.

"It will be easy, even honest and pragmatic from my side to focus on the last three years, to say 'let’s try to get back to the Champions League, to get back into the top four, to do well in the Europa League'. I am not so good at that. I am more aggressive and to say that we want to win. We are not going to get everything, of course, but we want to."

Mourinho has been fashioning a squad to challenge on all fronts since he was appointed at the end of May. In addition to tying down Michael Carrick, Marcus Rashford and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson on new contracts, the new manager has already signed defender Eric Bailly and superstar striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

"We made a nucleus of four priorities to give a certain balance and push of quality to the squad," he said. "The third player will be official soon."

As for the type of players he is looking for, Mourinho explained: "I like specialists, not multi-functional players. I am very specific with my approach, so I need specialists for that. You always need multi-functional players to help you when you have injuries, but I prefer specialists."