Jose Mourinho has dropped a hint over Manchester United’s January transfer plans by suggesting his side needs to become ‘more balanced.’

The Portuguese manager is yet to sign anyone this month, although has been heavily linked with a number of stars, including Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez.

United became hot favourites to land the Chile international after rivals Manchester City pulled out of the race for the Gunners forward – however any such move is yet to materialise.

And Mourinho, says he will only move for the right players should they become available, and if they can add balance to his offensively heavily squad.

“Our squad was built not to have new players in January. We built a squad with this idea, this philosophy that I share with [executive vice-chairman] Mr Woodward and the owners, that normally investment is made in the summer,” he explained.

“The balance of the squad is made in the summer, unless you have a dramatic situation with a crazy number of injuries and you are pushed for emergency deals. But sometimes it can happen: on the table there’s a fantastic opportunity and you fight for that opportunity.

“If it happens, it happens; if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t. But I like my squad, I like my players; the more time I spend with them, the more I like them. And this week [in Dubai] was also good to be sure of that.”

Mourinho added: “It depends. It depends on the moment, on the players, it depends on our needs.

“Normally, next summer, we would try again to improve our squad in the different departments, to try to make every department stronger. That’s the normal situation. If, in the window market, you do something, it stops you doing it again in the summer. So you are not going to buy a goalkeeper and buy another goalkeeper in the summer.

“So let’s say in the summer we have three targets – a defender, a midfielder and an attacking player – if, in the winter, you do one of the three, then in the summer you are going to do three minus one.

“We like our squad, we believe in our squad – it’s just about improving it in a balanced way. So if we do something now, it has to be something we really believe is the right thing to do for the team.”