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Manchester United have turned their attention to Youssouf Fofana, Sofyan Amrabat and Sander Berge in their search for another midfielder after Paris Saint-Germain did not drop their asking price for Manuel Ugarte.
The FA Cup winners still admire the Uruguay international but have signalled that the time when they were willing to pay a ‘United tax’ for players is over and are willing to move on to alternative targets, with Fofana, Amrabat and Berge among the other midfielders they are considering.
United also had two bids for Jarrad Branthwaite rejected, with Everton holding out for £70m for the defender, and have not returned for a third offer.
They are working with a limited budget this summer, because of Financial Fair Play, and could reluctantly sacrifice Scott McTominay to fund the purchase of a more defensive midfielder. Fulham are interested in the Scotland international but are yet to meet United’s value of a popular figure who had a fine campaign last year.
Amrabat had a mixed loan spell at Old Trafford last season, making 30 appearances but producing arguably his best performance in the FA Cup final win over Manchester City. United had not taken up an option to buy the Morocco international, who previously played for manager Erik ten Hag at Utrecht, but he has remained of interest to them.
France international Fofana, 25, is entering the last year of his contract with Monaco, which could reduce his asking price while Berge was relegated with Burnley last season. All three are seen as rather more affordable than Ugarte at the moment.
United are also waiting to see if West Ham will make a suitable offer for Aaron Wan-Bissaka and if the right-back wants to leave. They are interested in Bayern Munich’s Noussair Mazrouai but are not going to bring him in without a departure.
Bayern’s Matthijs de Ligt is still a centre-back United like but it would also need a sale – with Victor Lindelof the likeliest candidate as Harry Maguire is expected to stay – and a transfer fee they could afford for a deal to be done.
