Man Utd closing in on Sanchez deal: Mourinho

Manchester United head coach Jose Mourinho on Friday said his club is close to signing star forward Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal.

"Nothing new. Clearly everyone knows that we are there and especially when the Arsenal manager speaks so clearly like he did, there is no point in trying to hide or deny," the Portuguese said.

Mourinho, however, did not explain the nature of the deal and said until there is an official announcement Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a Manchester United player and Alexis Sanchez remains an Arsenal forward.

"But not done, not done at all. In this moment Mkhitaryan is our player, Sanchez an Arsenal player," Mourinho added.

When asked what has taken so long for the deal to be cracked, the 54-year-old said: "I don't know. Sometimes people think transfers involve the managers a lot in the negotiations.

"I think it depends a lot on the type of club the way we establish our jobs and in my case when it goes to the table of negotiations I like to be out. I'm out. I will just be calmly waiting for news. No more than that.

"I don't know. My involvement in the situation is just to say the reasons why I would like to have the player and no more than that. I'm out."

The Portuguese tactician said his contract ends at 2019 at the Manchester United owners are happy with his performance so he is not thinking about leaving the club.

"My contract ends July 2019 so plenty of time to speak," Mourinho said.

"I know that the club is happy and the owners are happy. They know I'm happy, when that's the case the day we decide to do something we will do it easily," he added.

--IANS

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