Exclusive: Manchester United set to announce contract extension for manager Jose Mourinho

Portuguese led Old Trafford club to two trophies in his first season and original deal was set to expire in 2019.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is set to extend his contract with the club. Michael Regan / Getty Images

Manchester United are expected to announce that manager Jose Mourinho has signed a contract extension to stay at Manchester United beyond his current three-year deal, which runs until 2019.

Sources have told The National that an announcement is imminent after negotiations, which started earlier this season, were successfully concluded.

The news will please the majority of United fans who have been supportive of their manager and appreciate the improvements he has made since taking charge in 2016.

Mourinho led United to two trophies, plus the Community Shield, in his first season and his team currently sit second in the Premier League, someway off leaders Manchester City, but much improved on recent seasons.

Since winning the league in Alex Ferguson’s final season, 2012-13, United have finished seventh, fourth, fifth and sixth. In the previous 22 seasons they had not finished outside the top three.

There was speculation linking the United manager to Paris Saint-Germain earlier in the season and more recent suggestions that he would leave Old Trafford at the end of this term, but the Portuguese dismissed it and stated at the start of the year that his commitment to United is total and that he wanted to stay beyond his current contract.

"If you want to ask me directly if I see myself next season at Manchester United, then I say I see myself here,” Mourinho, 54, told reporters. “As I said when I arrived, I am going to leave when the club wants me to leave because I have no intention to leave at all.

“My intention is to stay and to work and to improve and to bring the club to where the club belongs. And I want to stay. I do not see any reason not to stay. I still have a contract. In fact I am in the middle of my contract. I am not in the last couple of months.

“My desire is to stay until the owners and the board is happy with my work. If I am going to sign a new one of course depends on the club but my commitment with the club is total and I want to stay.

“It is just a question of whether the club, the owners, the board, Mr Woodward are happy with my contribution and they want me to stay beyond the end of this contract. But yes I want to stay.”