Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has hit out at Bayern Munich's tendency to buy players from rival clubs, and claimed it's impossible for Premier League sides to do the same.
Under Sir Alex Ferguson, United regularly signed players from Premier League opponents, but most clubs are now in a financially stable enough condition to refuse to sell to rivals.
And Mourinho expressed his beliefthat it is now far more difficult to be successful in the transfer window because of this development.
"That is the new football. When previously you were speaking about Sir Alex Ferguson's time, this is not Germany," he said, quoted bythe Telegraph.
"In Germany, Bayern Munich start winning the league in the summer. They go to Borussia Dortmund every year and buy their best player. One day they go there and get Robert Lewandowski. The next year, they go there, Mario Gotze. The next year they go there, Mats Hummels. So they win the league in the summer.
"Do you think I can go to Tottenham and bring two Tottenham players to kill Tottenham? I cannot. I cannot go to Arsenal and bring the two best Arsenal players. I cannot go to Chelsea and bring two of the players that I love very very much. That time is over.
"That time is over so the situation of starting being champion by attacking your direct opponents in this country is over. It is over and if you get a player from these clubs, you get a player that club does not want to keep.
"Obviously Real Madrid sell who they want to sell, Barcelona sell who they want to sell, Bayern Munich sell who they want to sell, Paris Saint-Germain sell who they want to sell. So then it is more difficult to have a very good market."