Jose Mourinho rules out China move for Zlatan Ibrahimovic and is 'convinced' he'll stay at Manchester United

The striker is out of contract at the end of the season but has a one-year extension available

Zlatan Ibrahimovic will stay at Manchester United next season, believes Jose Mourinho (Getty)

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has moved to allay fears that Zlatan Ibrahimovic may not return for a second season with the club following mounting speculation that big money offers from China or Europe could lure him overseas.

The 35-year-old forward has been an unqualified success in his debut year in the English game, leading the club with 15 league goals to date.

That, in turn, has led to suggestions that he may be the subject of one last big-money move with the Chinese Super League, where money appears to be no object, one obvious potential destination. Italian club Napoli have also been linked with Ibrahimovic who has a second option year on his contract with United.

Mourinho, however, is relaxed about that contract option being activated and claims there is no doubt that Ibrahimovic will still be with the club next season.

“I’m totally convinced he is going to stay,” said Mourinho. “He came with the intention to stay two years but in the minds of everyone the first year is going better than every expectation.

“He knows we are going to try again to improve next season and try to share with him in a fantastic way probably the last year of his career at the highest level so I'm convinced that he's staying.

“He's adapted to the club, to the situation, I don't see any problem with his family, I gave him the possibility of a next day off to go to Sweden, he doesn't want, so I'm totally convinced he is going to stay.”

Meanwhile, the United manager joked about executive vice chairman Ed Woodward’s use of the word “churn” in the club’s annual report this week.

Woodward claimed he was looking to see less “churn” - the turnover of first team players - this summer and Mourinho was in complete agreement with the approach outlined by his superior.

“First of all yesterday I had to ask a friend about ‘churn’ because I had no idea, it's a new word for my vocabulary,” joked Mourinho. “You have to learn every time you can and I thank Ed for that word because I didn't have an idea.

“He's completely right, of course we speak about it, of course we speak about what next and we know that we have a squad that like every squad needs changes

“But we know also that our squad has potential, our squad has good players, many of them in the best age.

“We prefer to bring two three or four players, players that feel an idea, a football we try to play, that can improve our squad.

“We are not interested in signing six or seven or sell six or seven. We are not going to play this game.

“We are stable, so we think our market in the summer will be soft, will be natural, some players to leave, some players to come but in a very natural way so I think the word Ed used was a good one.”


 Ibrahimovic's first season at United has been a huge success already 
 (Getty)

While rivals such as Manchester City have already indicated that they will be involved in heavy activity in the summer’s transfer market, Mourinho, therefore, has a more relaxed attitude towards the next window having now spent well over half a season working with the squad.

“You work with the players and you know the players better, you only know the players really when you work with them,” he said.

“Sometimes you get disappointed because you expect more and even in relation to this everything is balanced, I'm not negatively surprised with anyone.

“I didn't have an incredible impact with some player so everything is balanced and I think our summer will be quite small.”