Manchester United are set to reject any offer from Arsenal for Phil Jones – because Jose Mourinho doesn’t want to do business with Arsene Wenger.

The Gunners are believed to have enquired about the 24-year-old’s availability as they continue their search for a centre-back.

Talks have stalled over a possible deal for Skhodran Mustafi with Valencia refusing to budge on their insistence that Arsenal must now meet the player’s £43million release clause, having previously indicated they would be prepared to sell at around £30m.

Although Wenger remains hopeful a deal can be done given Valencia’s need to balance the books in order to meet with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules, his scouts have been charged with the responsibility of providing a list of alternatives.

Bayer Leverkusen’s Omer Toprak, Simon Kjaer of Fenerbahce and Jose Gimenez are among the names on that list, along with Southampton’s Jose Fonte, but the Gunners believe the latter will join United before the window closes next Wednesday.

Mourinho is already under pressure to trim a bloated squad having made four summer signings and the arrival of Fonte would place further scrutiny on Jones’ position, having become a peripheral figure since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.

In April of that year, Ferguson made the remarkable claim that Jones could become the best player in United’s history but although he has started 58 Premier League games in the subsequent three seasons, he has not featured since January through injury and Mourinho has since signed centre-back Eric Bailly for £30m from Villarreal.

He would therefore be a possible candidate to leave in search of regular first-team football but Standard Sport understands Mourinho will not sanction the sale of Jones to his bitter rival, even if he is not central to his plans for the season ahead.

Jones has been told he does have a future at Old Trafford but he is unlikely to play every week and therefore a move to Arsenal could be tempting, especially given Wenger has long-admired the player, having been out-bid when United paid Blackburn Rovers £16.5m to sign him in 2011.

However, Mourinho would prefer not to strengthen Wenger’s hand given the history of animosity between the pair.

The Portuguese extended his war of words with Wenger at his unveiling as United manager in July, suggesting that he had little to prove compared with “some managers who last won a title ten years ago”. Arsenal haven’t won the League since 2004.