of Torino right-back Matteo Darmian and are still in
talks to sign Nicolas Otamendi, Goal understands.
United are believed to have agreed a deal worth
€18 million (£12.9m) plus €2m (£1.4m) in add-
ons with the Turin club for Italy international
Darmian, and an announcement is expected in the
coming days.
Negotiations for a top-level centre-back have
proven more troublesome, however. Despite a very
real intent to sign Sergio Ramos from Real Madrid,
the club are reluctant pay more than £35m and
have also been thwarted in their attempts to
include him in any deal that would take David De
Gea to the Santiago Bernabeu.
United and Madrid cannot agree on the valuation of
the Spain international, with the English side said
to be holding out for a world-record fee for the
goalkeeper despite his contract expiring at the end
of next season.
STAT PACK WHAT WILL MATTEO DARMIAN BRING
TO MANCHESTER UNITED?
Interest in Ramos, which emerged in the middle of
June, appeared to put the breaks on what had
seemed an imminent move for Otamendi.
But Goal understands the club remain interested in
the Argentina centre-back, who shone for his
country at the Copa America despite finishing on
the losing side in Saturday's final, and they are
hoping to negotiate a deal via influential agent
Jorge Mendes.
The main stumbling block to date had been
Valencia's insistence on receiving €50m (£35m)
for Otamendi's services.
That stance, however, was most aggressively taken
by executive president Amadeo Salvo, who refused
to consider anything less than the club's stated
asking price in public and in private.
But Salvo left the club at the end of June as
Valencia president Peter Lim continues his
overhaul at Mestalla, and there is now hope at Old
Trafford that they can sign Otamendi for a reduced
fee.
Mendes maintains a strong relationship with all
parties involved in the deal and it is hoped he can
smooth over negotiations.
The Portuguese super-agent, alongside Eugenio
Lopez, looks after Otamendi's interests and helped
broker his controversial move from Porto to
Valencia, via a six-month loan spell at Atletico
Mineiro, in 2014.
He has also brought several players, including De
Gea, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and Radamel Falcao,
to Old Trafford in recent years and has a good
relationship with United CEO and transfer chief Ed
Woodward, who replaced David Gill in 2013.
Likewise, Mendes is close to Valencia owner Lim
and as recently as January oversaw a €25m
(£17.9m) move for Enzo Perez from Benfica.
PROFILE Meet Jorge Mendes - the transfer
kingmaker behind the summer's biggest deals
Otamendi's representative Lopez made it known in
the middle of June that he would negotiate his
client's exit from Mestalla with Mendes, not Salvo,
as his frustrations bubbled over.
With United wary of being used to help secure a
new contract for Ramos at Madrid, they have
continued talks for Otamendi as they forge ahead
with their recruitment drive ahead of the new
season.
Valencia, too, are on the look-out for a new
centre-back and Otamendi's Argentina colleague
Ezequiel Garay, another Mendes client, has been
linked with a move from Zenit St Petersburg.
Garay was Otamendi's partner at the Copa America
until picking up an injury ahead of the 6-1 semi-
final victory over Paraguay, and he has also been
linked with a move to Madrid should Ramos depart
this summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment