For the last few weeks we’ve been led to believe that Arsenal were moving very close to singing Borussia Dortmund’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

The player, who is refusing to sign a new deal with the Germans has been told by his club he’s going nowhere, but that hasn’t stopped his agent telling us all where he’d really like to go. Hint – it’s not Arsenal.

Mino Raiola said “He wants to go to Manchester United and we are still trying to resolve the situation.” 

If that name sounds familiar, don’t be surprised – he’s also Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s agent, and where have we been told he’s going? Yep, that’s right, Manchester United.

We all know that Jose Mourinho has no problem paying stupid transfer fees or wages and in Manchester United, he could have found his sweetest sugar daddy since the early days of Roman Abramovich.

He won’t get a fee for Zlatan, but Raiola will no doubt receive a hefty chunk of the whopping signing on fee United would pay the Swede. He’s also already generated over €130m in transfer fees throughout Ibra’s career so far.

He took Mkhitaryan on as a client in 2013 but has yet to broker any major deals to or from the Bundesliga.

When it comes down to it, Arsenal would be more than willing to match United on the transfer fee for Mkhitaryan. Wages, however, would be another matter entirely.

From what I can see, United operate with no wage structure while Arsenal’s, although raised, is still very much in place. United, with the wave of a pen, would happily pay the midfielder a weekly amount far in excess of the highest earners at Arsenal.

With Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Antonio Conte all looking to recruit heavily during this window, this non-transfer could well be little taster of what Arsenal have in store for them as they try to compete against these clubs who will pay more and now have managers that offer as much draw as Wenger himself.

It’s going to be a tough one.