It is Manchester United vs Liverpool week, but now is the time for some transfer talk, as it appears Old Trafford is closing in on their first signing of the January transfer window.
Sporting CP midfielder Bruno Fernandes was potentially set to move to United in the summer, but for whatever reason, MUFC just didn’t make it happen. Here we are in the winter window, it now seems the Fernandes move will actually come to fruition.
According to ESPN, United are closing in on a deal, reporting that the club and player have agreed to personal terms.
The hang up however, according to the article, is that “Sporting value Fernandes at around โฌ80 million while United are keen to pay closer to โฌ60m.”
Watch this space, because things on the Fernandes transaction could escalate quickly if the two clubs are able to find common ground and meet in the middle somewhere. Fernandes was one of the names most heavily linked to United this past summer. His name popped up a lot during the summer silly season, and now we could finally see some closure on this transfer saga in the fortnight between now and the closure of the window.
Moving to another transfer narrative, but staying in the midfield, United will do battle with Chelsea for Lille’s Boubakary Soumare. Supposedly, the 20-year-old had been sought after by Arsenal, Real Madrid and Valencia, but now it’s just down to the two English giants who have battled each other numerous times in the transfer market.
“United and Chelsea have held talks over the player but no decision is expected to be made before Lille play Paris-Saint-Germain on January 26.”
Soumare is regarded to be in the same mold as Paul Pogba, a true box to box midfielder. Thus you can see why United are interested. According to NBC Sports, the “reported transfer fee for Soumare is in the region of $45 million.”
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