Despite previously claiming that they would reject any offers for Henrikh Mkhitaryan and make him see out the final year of his contract, Borussia Dortmund have confirmed on their official website that they have accepted a bid from Manchester United.

Hans-Joachim Watzke has released a statement to explain the club’s decision.

The decision to go ahead with this transfer was a very difficult one due to the unique negotiating position we found ourselves in: Manchester had made us an exceptionally generous offer. If we had not taken them up on it, then the player would have gone a year later in 2017 on a free transfer. And we would have only delayed answering the question over the player by one year.