Manchester United have held talks over an £80m midfield signing, but a fresh report claims Arsenal are ready to barge them aside and seal a deal for themselves.
Man Utd’s shortlist of midfield transfer targets isn’t exactly short, with no fewer than THIRTEEN names circled by INEOS chiefs.
Elliot Anderson is top of the pile, and Man Utd are ready to initiate club-to-club talks with Nottingham Forest for the record-breaking deal.
However, Man Utd want two new midfielders, not just one, and among those also in their sights is West Ham ace, Mateus Fernandes.
TEAMtalk brought news on Thursday morning of the Red Devils making contact with the 21-year-old representatives.
The early signals coming from back from Fernandes’ camp are exceedingly positive, with sources explaining Fernandes is ‘extremely keen’ on the idea of joining Man Utd.
Not only does he want to test himself in the Champions League at one of the world’s biggest clubs, but he also idolises his namesake and fellow Portuguese, Bruno Fernandes.
Regarding cost, the Hammers have set their stall out at £80m. A sale at that price would see West Ham roughly double their money after paying £40m when signing the player from Southampton one year ago, though the Saints do retain a 15 percent sell-on clause.
But according to the latest from The Times, Man Utd’s plans to field two Fernandes’ next year could be torpedoed by Arsenal.
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Arsenal want Mateus Fernandes
Their reporter, Gary Jacobs, declared: ‘Mateus Fernandes wanted by Arsenal – and West Ham may have to sell.’
West Ham may ‘have to sell’, per the reporter, if they suffer relegation to the Championship, at which point a massive rebalancing of the books would be required. As it stands, they sit 18th, two points behind Tottenham.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is reportedly emphasising the signing of a more technical midfielder.
His side’s limitations were badly exposed in the League Cup final defeat to Manchester City, and the Spaniard wants a more gifted player to compliment Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi in central areas.
One player who’ll be sacrificed if Fernandes does arrive in north London is Christian Norgaard.
The report added: ‘Arsenal are open to selling Christian Norgaard, who has played only 56 league minutes since he moved from Brentford for an initial £10million last summer.
‘Arteta has not seemed to trust the Denmark midfielder to start in place of Declan Rice or Martín Zubimendi to give them a breather.’
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