Manchester United are being reported as the leading contenders to sign Mateus Fernandes after West Ham\u2019s relegation left the club ready to move their prized asset on. The Times believes United are \u201cincreasingly confident\u201d that they can conclude a deal for the 21-year-old, with Arsenal less willing to meet West Ham\u2019s valuation of over \u00a380 million.<\/p>\n
Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid have also been linked, but sources suggest United have moved ahead of Arsenal in the running. West Ham purchased the Portugal international in a deal worth in excess of \u00a340 million and appear resigned to maximising their return. Southampton retain a 15% sell-on clause from the midfielder\u2019s previous transfer.<\/p>\n
United have already agreed to sign \u00c9derson from Atalanta as they look to strengthen a midfield that will lose Casemiro. Fernandes is reported to be the club\u2019s second midfield target and could become a further priority if Manuel Ugarte departs this summer.<\/p>\n
While Old Trafford is presented as the most likely destination, the draft of interest also includes a claim that new Real Madrid manager Jos\u00e9 Mourinho has urged the Spanish club to pursue his compatriot.<\/p>\n
Fernandes drew attention in a difficult season at the London Stadium, earning a Premier League Young Player of the Season nomination. He contributed seven goal involvements in the league and averaged 11 defensive contributions per match, a rate inside only Casemiro (12.5) and Ugarte (14.5) among United\u2019s midfield references.<\/p>\n
At 21, Fernandes offers a blend of creative spark and physical tenacity and is viewed as a high-upside signing who can operate as a box-to-box presence or in a more defensive role. For a Manchester United side assembling youth and energy in central areas, he would join Bruno, Kobbie Mainoo and \u00c9derson as options expected to help the club cope with domestic and Champions League demands next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manchester United have emerged as favourites to sign Mateus Fernandes as West Ham prepare to sell….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513,172],"tags":[1162,1637],"class_list":["post-14277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd-transfer-news","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-assists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}