Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has admitted that he would always welcome Javier Hernandez into his squad after the Mexican signed for West Ham United.

Hernandez joined West Ham on a three-year deal from Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen for £16m on Monday, returning to the Premier League after two years away.

Though Mourinho said the club were never interested in re-signing Hernandez, the Portuguese praised the former United striker and believes he would still have been able to impact his squad.

“He left the club a few years ago. I’m not sure that it was his decision or the manager’s decision, but he’s a good player, he’s a player that can always score goals,” he said, as reported by Goal.

“He’s a player that I would always welcome in my squad because he’s a player that doesn’t need many minutes on the pitch to score goals.”

With United recently signing Romelu Lukaku and selling Wayne Rooney, Mourinho are edging towards a younger squad and Mourinho insisted that was the reason for not buying Hernandez.

“We moved in another direction, a younger player in Lukaku and we have [Marcus] Rashford that can be also a striker,” Mourinho continued.

“He’s originally a striker, so we didn’t feel that need, but no doubt that for West Ham to get a player with his experience and his quality is very, very good.”

Hernandez’s signing for West Ham will lessen the load on Andy Carroll and Andre Ayew, who both suffered injuries last season that hampered the Hammers’ quest for a top-10 finish