West Ham midfielder Mateus Fernandes still prefers a move to Manchester United despite reaching a verbal agreement with Tottenham.
The 21-year-old is set to leave West Ham this summer following the club’s relegation from the Premier League last season, and is not short of options with United competing to sign the midfielder alongside Spurs, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.
This week, Spurs stepped up their efforts to sign Fernandes and it is understood that the midfielder has now reached a verbal agreement to join Roberto De Zerbi’s side.
Spurs are yet to agree a transfer fee with West Ham, who are demanding £80 million for the Portuguese midfielder.
But according to Andy Mitten, Fernandes’ preference is still a move to United this summer, despite the initial agreement in place with Spurs.
‘Manchester United understand that the player wants to join the club,’ Mitten said on the Talk of the Devils podcast.
‘But West Ham want the highest fee, West Ham want an auction situation, West Ham want as much money as possible, maybe his agent does as well and the agent is influencing the player, who doesn’t want to play Championship football, Jorge Mendes is the agent.
‘I’m told that he would play for Spurs but he prefers Manchester United.’
United, however, are reluctant to meet West Ham’s £80m valuation of Fernandes, who was signed from Southampton for £38m plus £4m in add-ons a year ago.
‘It boils down to how much Manchester United are willing to pay, if the club want to pay that amount, certainly don’t want to get into an auction situation, and how highly they rate the player,’ Mitten said.
‘I know some fans are getting frustrated online, I’m not surprised, it’s always like this this time of year.
‘It’s exactly the same as [Bryan] Mbeumo, people saying, ‘why’s he not signed, this is a disgrace’. It wasn’t a disgrace, it was smart negotiation.
‘I asked Omar Berrada [United’s CEO] about the market a couple of weeks ago and to paraphrase him he said, ‘we will be disciplined, we will not let the market or agents dictate what we should be doing, we have to be ready for any eventuality and an opportunity might arise later on in the window that wasn’t there at the start’. I do not disagree with that, I’m fine with that.’
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