Jose Mourinho Is Already Trolling Arsene Wenger, and the Season Hasn't Even Begun

By Tom Roddy On 7/12/17 at 5:47 AM EDT

Wenger and Mourinho — Arsene Wenger, left, and Jose Mourinho, right, at Stamford Bridge, London, October 5, 2014. ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty

Sports Premier League Manchester United Sport Jose Mourinho

After the vitriol that flew around north London just a few months ago, the summer has gone well so far for Arsene Wenger and Arsenal.

The club has done transfer business early, something Wenger has failed to do in recent years leaving the team struggling and facing inflated prices on the last day of the window. It brought in Sead Kolasinac, a Bosnian left-back, from Schalke, and then broke the club transfer record by signing Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon for £52.7 million (about $68 million).

A pacey, cool, prolific striker, Lacazette is expected to help propel Arsenal back up the Premier League after finishing fifth last season and missing out on the Champions League. But Jose Mourinho is always ready with a soaked cloth to put a dampener on events for Wenger and his team.

According to The Guardian, Lacazette was a player Mourinho had considered for Manchester United as it, too, looks to return to its previous glory in English football.

The 26-year-old Frenchman's strike-rate had caught the attention of Mourinho, his 129 goals in 275 games for Lyon made him an interesting prospect as a successor to Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Old Trafford.

Mourinho, the report says, sent United's scouting operation in France to assess Lacazette but he was told the striker may not be suitable for the Premier League, due to his physicality. Lacazette, it seems, was not good enough for a Mourinho team.

The Portuguese coach went instead for Romelu Lukaku, and paid a reported £75 million for the Belgian striker, beating his former club Chelsea to the signing.

Lukaku, 24, became United's second signing of the summer, after Swedish center back Victor Lindelof arrived from Benfica for £31 million last month. The United squad is currently in Los Angeles as it begins its preseason tour of the States.

Arsenal and Lacazette, meanwhile, are in Australia preparing for the new Premier League season that begins Friday, August 11, when Arsenal faces Leicester City at the Emirates Stadium—and when Mourinho finds out whether Lacazette would have been good enough, even for him.

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