You name it, Jose Mourinho has complained about it these past few weeks. A lack of signings, the quality of pitches, the quality of referees, the fitness of his captain, the quality of his young players, the failure of Anthony Martial to return to pre-season following the birth of his child, the number of players missing after the World Cup - the Manchester United boss looks and sounds like he’d rather be anything other than Manchester United boss right now. The sparkle is gone. The Special One is no longer so special. He is a greyed, dishevelled shadow of his former self. United fans are dreading the time-honoured third season Mourinho spiral which already seems to be in motion this summer. But what we have seen from Mourinho over the past few weeks is an illustration of deeper problems at Old Trafford. The fractures are most obvious in Mourinho’s remarks about transfer spending, or rather a lack thereof. “I gave my club a list of five names a few months ago,” he sighed after Saturday’s disappointing 4-1 pre-season defeat to Liverpool, a result which underlined United’s current problems. “I wait to see if it's possible to have one of these players.” Mourinho’s comments were a not so thinly veiled dig at Ed Woodward, Man Utd’s vice-chairman and public figurehead who has taken on the role of de facto head of recruitment for the past five years. But Woodward is not a head of recruitment. He is not a director of football or sporting director either. He’s not even a figure with football at the forefront of his mind. Woodward is a money man, a man charged with exploiting and making the most of Manchester United’s potential as a brand. He is very good at this, maybe even the best in the game. The Old Trafford club has an official tyres partner, an official medical systems partner, an official paint partner and an official mattress and pillow partner. No club in world football makes as much money as they do.