Mourinho warns United that big deals bring pressure

The Premiership season may be 31 days away from starting, but last night Jose Mourinho fired the first shots at the champions Manchester United. As Sir Alex Ferguson's summer spending creeps towards £70m, the Chelsea manager reminded him that with big financial backing came more pressure.

Having suffered three seasons of criticism for the Chelsea transfer fees bankrolled by the club's owner, Roman Abramovich, Mourinho's main message for this season appears to be that United are now the big spenders. "We know that in the previous three seasons, when we spent some millions, everybody pointed at us as the team with more responsibility because we were the spenders in the market," he said.

United have currently paid out £34m for Anderson and Nani, £18m for Owen Hargreaves and are in negotiations for a deal for Carlos Tevez that could cost more than £20m. With the free signing Steven Sidwell by his side at the Beverly Hills Hotel yesterday, and Claudio Pizarro and Tal Ben Haim also costing nothing, Mourinho was keen to make his point as quickly as possible.

Having spent only around £16.5m ­ considerably less than Liverpool this summer ­ on Florent Malouda, Mourinho wanted to make clear that he did not need vast financial resources to succeed in the transfer market. "The only player we've bought was Malouda, we are very happy with that," Mourinho said. "Sidwell has a value, Ben Haim has a value, Pizarro has a value. It shows that we did our homework well during the season and we knew where the targets were. I want to make it very clear that the reason why they're here is because they're good players, not because they are free transfers.

"Our squad is almost the same. Why? Because it's good. We trust the success we've had in the last three seasons with this group. Last season was not the perfect season in terms of the results we had but you know the problems we had. The squad worked well and we believe in them. We are not interested in what the other teams spend. We know what we want and we trust the squad that we have."

The Chelsea manager took charge of the first day of pre-season yesterday in the sunshine at the University of Los Angeles California campus and there were a few faces who may not have expected to be back for another campaign.

Arjen Robben admitted that his negotiations for a new contract had broken down and Real Madrid are confident that they can lure the player away. However, Mourinho said later that he was determined to keep the Dutch winger. Having announced that Khalid Boulahrouz would follow Geremi out the club, Mourinho said that he wanted to keep his current squad intact.

"The market is open but when you said Arjen, I want to make it very clear: the fact that we signed Malouda is not to open the door for him to leave," Mourinho said. "I'd love to keep them both, I'd like to keep Arjen. He has two more years of contract and Chelsea are negotiating with him over a new contract."

Outlining for the first time why he signed Sidwell, Mourinho said that the Englishman would be given his chance to win a first-team place. "He's a young player, experienced but young. He is English with experience of the Premiership. We have a group of good midfield players. He's one more.

"We know that this is a specific season where we lose some African players for a long time. We realised we needed one more midfielder and Steve was our choice. It's a different club for him and a different level of responsibility."

Based in Beverly Hills, Chelsea will travel to Stanford to play the Mexican side Club America on Saturday. They play the South Korean team Suwon Bluewings on Tuesday at the Los Angeles' Home Depot Center ­ a match that has attracted great attention among California's large population of people of Korean heritage. Their final game will be David Beckham's debut for Los Angeles Galaxy on 21 July.

To the chagrin of the tour's organisers, Mourinho dismissed the fixtures as "not really games". However, the Chelsea manager appeared to be in a good mood as he prepared for his fourth season in charge with Avram Grant, the new director of football , a somewhat isolated figure on the touchline during training.

Against LA Galaxy, Mourinho will find himself in the unusual position of not being centre of attention. "We want to play well, we have a good image, and we want to promote the game in the States," he said. "If David Beckham plays, it's a big moment for LA, for US soccer. They couldn't choose a better player to achieve what they want to achieve. It's a pity for European football that a good player like him has gone."

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