Premier League: Manchester United set to offload players in January

The Manchester United board have told manager Jose Mourinho that he will have to sell some of his players in January if he wants to have funds for new signings during the winter transfer window. The Portuguese manager has spent 285 million pounds to bring in six high-profile players during his two years at Old Trafford. The new signings had a major impact on the club wage bill as their most recent financial results, released in September, showed an increase of 13.5% to 263.5 million pounds per year. This summer Jose Mourinho brought in Romelu Lukaku from Everton, Victor Lindelof from Benfica and Nemanja Matic from Chelsea while the only high-profile player to leave the club was Wayne Rooney. In 2016 Mourinho spent even more than last summer to sign Paul Pogba from Juventus, Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Borussia Dortmund, Eric Bailly from Villarreal and Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Paris Saint-Germain. That summer Mourinho made the only two big-money sales from Manchester United: Memphis Depay to Lyon for 16 million pounds and Morgan Schneiderlin to Everton for 22 million pounds. The most likely departure from Manchester United is that of left-back Luke Shaw, he cost the club 27 million pounds in 2014 but he has not played at all this season and has started just four Premier league matches in the past twelve months. Central midfielder Marouane Fellaini might also have to leave the club, his contract expires next summer and if he doesn't agree a new deal with the Red Devils until January he will be free to discuss terms with any foreign club. Mourinho has not made any significant player purchases during last season's winter transfer window. Manchester United are 14/1 at Bet365 to win the Premier League title this season.