Jose Mourinho is closing in on his first two signings of the summer.

Brazilian midfielder Fred was in Manchester on Monday to iron out the final details of his £52 million move from Shakhtar Donetsk.

Meanwhile, Manchester United are close to capturing right-back Diogo Dalot after “a breakthrough in talks over the weekend”, per the Manchester Evening News.

The Red Devils will pay a little more than £17.5 million for the 19-year-old.

So that’s some early business done, and more arrivals are expected at Old Trafford as Mourinho continues his plan to catch Manchester City.

The Portuguese knows that it’s going to take another summer of heavy spending to keep up with Pep Guardiola’s Premier League champions.

Whether they are about to resolve their issue at centre-back by signing Toby Alderweireld from Tottenham remains to be seen.

Premier League's Instagram post

Confirmation of Fred’s arrival is imminent - but the Premier League may have beaten Man United to the announcement.

On Monday, they posted a photo of Paul Pogba with Fred the Red, Man United’s mascot, on Instagram.

Interesting time to post such a thing.

Then, adding to the belief that the Premier League were making a direct reference to Man United’s new signing, the post was deleted.

Fred, 25, described his role at Shakhtar as “the conductor”.

The Brazilian midfielder would seemingly start alongside Pogba and Nemanja Matic in a 4-3-3 formation at Old Trafford.

He would provide the link between defence and attack and has been compared to Man City’s Fernandinho.

Indeed, Fred was on Guardiola’s radar according to reports in January.

Mourinho has clearly identified the weak areas in his squad and has wasted little time in improving them.

Antonio Valencia performed admirably at right-back but the Ecuadorian is 33-years-old and has knee issues.

With Matteo Darmian set to leave the club, Dalot will ensure Valencia isn’t without competition next season.

Capturing Alderweireld from Spurs would go some way to improving the situation at the heart of defence.

Victor Lindelof struggled in his debut season at Man United while Eric Bailly’s season was affected by injury.

Alderweireld is among the finest centre-backs in the Premier League but Man United will be wary.

Daniel Levy will drive a hard bargain.