Jose Mourinho reportedly “fully supports” Manchester United targeting Benfica’s Renato Sanches and Everton‘s John Stones in the summer transfer window, with the Red Devils also eyeing Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The Portuguese manager now “expects” to take over from Louis van Gaal as United manager in the summer and would back moves for centre-back Stones and midfielder Sanches having pursued them both when in charge at Chelsea, according to James Ducker in the Telegraph.

Ducker added that Paris Saint-Germain striker Ibrahimovic “has admitted he would happily play under Mourinho at United” and is out of contract with the Ligue 1 giants at the end of the season.

Recent reports indicated United could be willing to offer the 34-year-old a £600,000-a-week deal to join them in the summer, per Italian outlet Corriere dello Sport (via the Mirror‘s Aaron Flanagan).

French newspaper L’Equipe (via Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Solhekol) also recently reported United currently have no competitors for the Swede in the Premier League:

Despite his age, Ibra would undoubtedly be a fantastic addition to the United squad as the Red Devils are in desperate need of more proven firepower in attack.

The former Ajax, Juventus and Inter Milan star has netted 32 goals in Ligue 1 this season, just eight fewer than the entire United side have managed in their Premier League campaign, per WhoScored.com. 

With Mourinho potentially set to take over at Old Trafford—he managed the Swedish superstar previously at Inter—it seems highly likely that Ibrahimovic could be a United player next term.

Stones and Sanches would both be excellent signings in the long term for the Manchester giants.

Everton’s 21-year-old English centre-back has had a topsy-turvy season, but he has huge potential and could partner well with Chris Smalling at United.

Chelsea failed with numerous bids for Stones last summer, the last of which was worth £38 million, per the Daily Mail‘s Sami Mokbel.

With the England international’s contract at Goodison Park set to run until 2019, Everton will not let him go cheaply, but United have shown in recent transfer windows that they are not afraid to splash the cash.

Sanches, 18, is also unlikely to come cheap, with Benfica’s valuation of the youngster reportedly £46 million, per the Manchester Evening News‘ Alice McKeegan.

He has enjoyed a breakout season in 2015-16 and proved to be a potentially world-class box-to-box midfielder—see some of his highlights below:

With Michael Carrick and Bastian Schweinsteiger both nearing the end of their respective careers, Sanches could be a future star in the middle of the park for United and could prove a perfect partner for Morgan Schneiderlin.

United are unlikely to be the only club interested in the Portuguese youngster this summer, but they can afford to pay big money for him, and the appointment of Mourinho as manager could prove the deciding factor in their bid to sign Sanches.  

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