Mourinho’s 1st signing Eric Bailly joins Manchester United on 4-year contract

The 22-year-old Villarreal defender – who scored one of the penalties in the penalty shootout which saw Ivory Coast win the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations – will cost United a reported $43.7million.

£30m Bailly arrived as Mourinho’s first signing since taking charge at Old Trafford last month and the former Chelsea boss is keen to continue his rebuild, with La Liga duo Raphael Varane and Aymeric Laporte on his short-list.

Bailly says playing for Mourinho “will help me develop in the right way and at the right club”.

“I am looking forward to meeting my new team-mates and to starting this new chapter of my life”. He scored a record-breaking 36 goals in the Serie A and at the age of 28 he has the quality and experience to become one of the Premier League’s best strikers.

Van Gaal could only guide United to a fifth-place finish in the Premier League last season as the club missed out on the title for the third straight campaign.

He will join the long list of prodigies as the likes of Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard and Luke Shaw that will form the spine of Manchester United for years to come.

“Eric is a young central defender with great natural talent”. Carrick is the current vice-captain of the Red Devil’s, so his influence over the playing squad could be one of the reasons that Mourinho has made a decision to keep him at the club.

Newcastle, Arsenal and a number of clubs from America and China were linked with a move for the 34-year-old, who has won 14 trophies in a decade at Old Trafford.

The problem? United will not feature in the Champions League next season.

“Not a lot of people will know about him but he’s a good defender”.