Come on in and join the club! Get our daily Manchester United email newsletter Sign me up! Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Manchester United have made an increased £28million move for Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

The Old Trafford giants have upped the ante in their attempts to land the Borussia Dortmund midfielder with a significantly improved second offer.

And there is increasing confidence a deal for Mkhitaryan will be agreed, according to sources close to the negotiations.

New boss Jose Mourinho has earmarked the 27-year-old Armenian as one of his next big-money targets.

And United’s determination to land Mkhitaryan for Mourinho is reflected in the size of their follow-up bid and quick response to having their initial £19m offer knocked back.

LIVE: All the latest transfer news throughout Wednesday.

Having gone three years without the title and after missing out on Champions League qualification for the second time in three seasons, the Red Devils are in a hurry to get back to the top and determined to make sure they are ready to hit the ground running next season under Mourinho.

Read more:

They also want to show they have learnt from the lessons of the last three summers when they have wasted precious time on ultimately failed pursuits of unobtainable players.

United are now focusing on more realistic transfer targets and want to move quickly to bring them in.

After the under-the-radar £30m capture of defender Eric Bailly from Villarreal, they are now pushing hard to land Mkhitaryan — who has also attracted interest from Arsenal and Chelsea.

United tested the water with a low opening offer, which was dismissed by the Bundesliga club.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

But having established Dortmund’s £31m valuation of Mkhitaryan in the process of those opening discussions, they have now gone back in with a new proposal that is much closer to the Germans’ price-tag.

The attacking midfielder, who scored 23 goals and set up another 32 last season, has just a year left on his current contract and has refused to sign a new one.

Read more:

Dortmund insist they would rather keep Mkhitaryan for the last year of his contract than sell this summer, having already lost key men Ilkay Gundogan to Manchester City and Mats Hummels to Bayern Munich respectively.

But United have given them something to think about with an offer of an initial £28m plus add-ons that, in total, is understood to come in just below their asking price.

Mourinho has received plenty of encouragement to continue his pursuit of Mkhitaryan by the player’s agent, Mino Raiola.

In pictures — New boss Mourinho tours United's Carrington training ground:

He has said: “Manchester are Micki’s dream club, he wants to join them by any means. It would be a sin to stop talking.

“We [Raiola and Dortmund] have both taken very different views and fight for them like lions.

Read more:

“[Dortmund chief Hans-Joachim] Watzke walks 180 degrees into one direction and I 180 degrees into the other. But even though it does not look like it right now, I still hope for a sensible solution.

“Such an offer to join Manchester United might only come once in a lifetime for a player. Nobody can guarantee us that the door will still be open for Micki next season.”