Jose Mourinho is convinced Zlatan Ibrahimovic will still be at Old Trafford next season - a campaign the Manchester United manager believes could be the striker's last at the "highest level".
The 35-year-old has made a mockery of the doubters
since arriving in the summer, with last weekend's strike against
Leicester seeing him become the first United player since Sir Alex
Ferguson's retirement to reach 20 goals.
Ibrahimovic has plenty of time to extend that record
given United are still fighting on four fronts and it appears a matter
of when rather than if the one-year option in his contract is triggered
to extend his deal beyond the summer.
The striker has, though, been linked to Napoli, along
with clubs in China and the United States - not that Mourinho imagines
such a move will come to fruition.
In fact, the United manager believes Ibrahimovic will
be determined to make the most of what could be his final year at the
peak of his powers.
Mourinho says he is 'totally convinced' Ibrahimovic will extend his stay
Credit: Getty Images
"I'm totally convinced that he is going to stay," Mourinho said. "He came with the intention of staying two years.
"The first year is going - probably not in his mind because he is a very ambitious guy - better than every expectation.
"He
knows that 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 also adapted to the club, he's adapted to the situation. I don't see any problem with his family.
"I give him the possibility of an extra day
off to go somewhere, to go Sweden - he doesn't want, he never goes.
Everything is stable with him, so I'm totally convinced that he is going
to stay."
The ultimate one-man teams
Ibrahimovichas
impressed consistently since arriving over the summer, joining United
along with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Eric Bailly and Paul Pogba.
Executive
vice-chairman Ed Woodward has promised to again improve United's squad
ahead of the 2017-18 season, but told investors that the transfer window
will not see the same "churn" of players.
Mourinho joked that Woodward has taught him a
new word when quizzed about Thursday's comments, which the manager
echoed before suggesting as many as four new players could arrive this
summer.
"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," he said, smiling. "You have to learn every time you can and
I thank Ed for that word because I didn't have an idea.
"I think 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, in age of evolution.
"Independent of the numbers, independent of
can we spend one, 10 or 100 (million pounds), it's also the philosophy,
the idea and we look at it in this way.
"We prefer to bring two, three or four
players, but good players. Players that feel an idea, a football that we
try to play, that can improve our squad.
"We are not interested in selling six or
seven and buy six or seven, and from this six or seven only one or two
are great quality. All the others are the same as the ones we are
selling
"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 used was a good one.
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