Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho must not make yet another costly transfer mistake by selling Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan, European football expert Raphael Honigstein has said, according to The Daily Star.

Mourinho has been criticised in the past for selling top quality players without allowing them to fulfill their full potential.

The Portuguese boss sold Mohamed Salah, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku while in charge of Chelsea and each move has come back to haunt him.

Salah is the Premier League's top scorer, De Bruyne is the division's joint-top assist holder, and after impressing away from Stamford Bridge, Lukaku cost Mourinho a whopping £75m in the summer.

And now, Honigstein believes the same may happen if the United boss sells out of favour star Mkhitaryan.

“Yeah I think it’s very possible because we have seen already what Henrikh Mkhitaryan can do,” he said on ESPN FC.

“We saw it at Shakhtar, we certainly saw it at Dortmund under Thomas Tuchel, where he was absolutely outstanding.

“He had interest from all over Europe, I think if you were to put him on the market in January, there would be a lot of interest for him, especially from Italy where his stock is still really really high.

“Of course his agent is Mino Raiola, that helps.

“It is a player that for whatever reason doesn’t work with Jose Mourinho but it doesn’t mean he’s not going to work somewhere else pretty well.”

The Armenian midfielder has one goal and five assists in the league this season.