THIS past week has seen Jose Mourinho spread the word. A source close to the Portuguese manager told a favourite journalist: “We need quality players, but you cannot do it in one or two transfer windows. You cannot buy four or five players in one go of the level we need.”

Consider that Manchester United added four players at a total cost of about £170 million in the summer and you can draw your own conclusions.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was a free transfer, but given that Mourinho has said he is getting a new contract and that he has played every minute of every game when not suspended, presumably he’s not one of the problem guys. The next cheapest guy was Eric Bailly, at £30 million plus bonuses.

You would think that for that kind of money you could, in fact, add enough talent to be competitive. Especially when you’re the self- described Special One.

Instead, Mourinho’s schtick these days seems to be reminding us of just how much alleged dross he has littering his squad.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan? Can’t cope with the intensity of the Premier League (strange that Mourinho didn’t figure that out a few months ago, when he approved his transfer).

Antony Martial? You get one bite, you get two bites, you get three bites and then somebody else comes along: those were Mourinho’s (paraphrased) words on Friday. Meaning he’s next in line to shape up or ship out.

Memphis Depay? The fact he has played 24 minutes of league football tells its own story.

Bastian Schweinsteiger? Soon it will be eight months since he played a competitive game for United.

There are many more examples, of course. Indeed, it’s almost easier to count the guys Mourinho would not replace if he could: David De Gea, Bailly, Paul Pogba, Ibrahimovic, maybe Ander Herrera and Juan Mata if he’s feeling charitable.

The fact of the matter is that it’s too easy to blame all this on David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, both of whom have records that are only marginally worse than Mourinho’s. And, obviously, the notion that you need another two or three transfer windows to assemble a competitive squad is equally absurd.

Sure, spend another £340 million and you would imagine even Justin Bieber could put together a top four side or whatever Mourinho’s definition is of “the level we need”.

Mourinho must realise this. Just as he must understand all too well that sending these types of messages doesn’t do him any favours. At least not with the general public and the punditocracy. And, you would hope, not with Ed Woodward and the Glazers either.

But, simply put, as recent events outside football suggest, repeat anything with enough conviction – no matter how absurd – and some portion of your audience will start to believe it.

Equally curious is the Ibrahimovic news, especially when juxtaposed with the above statements. Extending Ibrahimovic makes sense if you need to win here and now and you are convinced of two things. One is that Marcus Rashford isn’t ready to be your starting centre-forward next season. The other is that, even with the club’s deep pockets, you won’t be able to secure a top-drawer centre-forward next summer.

That may well be Mourinho’s state of mind. But, of course, keeping the big Swede around had another knock-on effect. He limits the development of Rashford (not to mention Martial, who is still just 20) and his skill set is so unique that it’s virtually assured that whoever replaces him down the road will play nothing like him.

When that’s your starting point, sure, maybe it is possible that Mourinho won’t have a squad he really likes until after the summer of 2018. And that everything that happens between now and then won’t be his fault, but Moyes and Van Gaal’s. And, maybe, if you peddle that line hard enough, there will be enough people who buy into it.

THE last time Arsenal went three games without a victory it effectively marked the end of their 2015-16 season. In the Premier League, defeats to Swansea and Manchester United saw them slip from two points off the top of the table to six points. And, in the Champions League, a 2-0 home defeat to Barcelona all but knocked them out of the competition.

This winless run – draws in the North London derby and away to Manchester United in the league, a 2-2 impasse with Paris St Germain – hasn’t had quite the same irreversible effects but it has raised a question of a different kind. Namely, is the fact that they can’t overcome their peers a sign that we are looking, once again, at an also-ran campaign?

What sets this sequence apart is the performances and the deviations from the script. We had seen Arsenal come up short due to a soft underbelly after playing pretty football. We had rarely seen them set up with two defensive midfielders and produce close to nothing on the attacking end like they did at Manchester United.

Nor had we seen them make elementary mistakes on the ball, like they did against PSG. Over the three winless matches, they could muster an uncharacteristic four shots on goal. And, note, while the absences of Santi Cazorla and Hector Bellerin have weighed heavily, their opponents in each of those matches were even more under-strength in each of those matches.

Arsene Wenger tried to find the positives – “at least we are not losing” – but the fact is that the early-season fluidity seems to be lost and the likes of Alex Iwobi and Alexis Sanchez have been on the skids as well. Iwobi may be given a break today against Bournemouth. Sanchez might be best served returning to his wide position – the repeated sprints he’s been making from the centre-forward role have become predictable and robbed him of lucidity in front of goal.

Equally, Arsenal’s bigger squad these days suggests greater propensity to tweak and tinker and that hasn’t been the Wenger way in the past. Is he finally adapting into the kind of manager his critics think he ought to be? Or is he simply reacting – too late – in a perpetual case of playing catch up? The next few outings will offer a better idea.