With few transfers being confirmed at the moment given the stage of the World Cup 2018 in Russia this summer, Manchester United have bucked the trend and completed a seriously enormous deal.

In an effort to enhance their midfield options Jose Mourinho has signed Brazilian international Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk as reported on the official Manchester United website.

United have pulled off quite a coup with the signing of Fred (full name Frederico Rodrigues de Paula Santos) as he had been linked with many other top sides including joining the Reds’ main rivals – Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City team.

The Brazilian who is currently in Russia with his country preparing for their next game against Costa Rica on Friday made the choice of red over blue and he had this to say about the 5 year deal he signed with United with the option of an additional year:

“This is the biggest club in the world and I am delighted to be a part of this amazing team. To work with Jose Mourinho, who has won so many trophies in his time as a coach, is an opportunity not to be missed.

”I cannot wait to get started and to meet my new team-mates. I would like to thank everyone at Shakhtar Donetsk for everything they have done for me over the past five years.

“This is a very exciting time for me with my focus now fully on the World Cup with Brazil.”

The 25 year old central midfielder has won 3 titles during his spell in Ukraine and it will be that trophy winning experience plus his undoubted strength and guile which made United splash what is reported to be a £52.5million fee to land the player.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho had this to say in regards to his new man: “Fred will complement our other midfielders’ qualities, which we need; his creative brain and passing vision will give us another dimension to our game. I am very happy he is joining our club and I believe our players know how important he can be in our team.”

With the loss of Michael Carrick to the coaching department United have moved decisively to add an experienced midfielder in Fred who will hopefully enjoy the sort of career that Carrick did in his many years at Old Trafford.

United legend Carrick will hopefully be able to pass along to Fred some of the wisdom he has acquired from his 12 seasons as a Red-Devil where he won 5 Premier League titles and a Champions League amongst other trophies.

You can’t criticise Manchester United for not being proactive as they have stolen the headlines again with a massive transfer answering Liverpool’s recent signing of fellow Brazilian Fabinho and other rivals’ transfer business like Arsenal with Bernd Leno, West Ham with Issa Diop and Lukasz Fabianski plus Manchester City who are set to clinch the signing of Italy midfielder Jorginho from Napoli while Chelsea continue to remain unusually quiet on all fronts.