United and Sporting locked in Bruno Fernandes negotiations

The January transfer window is approaching its closing date fast, but there appears to have been no movement regarding the move of Bruno Fernandes from Sporting Lisbon to Manchester United. In his weekly column for The Athletic, journalist David Ornstein says the talks between the two clubs are still ongoing, but there is a significant gap between their respective valuations of the player and recent reports suggesting that an agreement was close are ‘wide of the mark’.

United have been pursuing this particular signing for a while now with the likes of Nemanja Matic and Juan Mata over 30 and Paul Pogba continuously linked with departure. They obviously lack creativity in their midfield and hope Fernandes would be able to help them in that area. But if any movement is to be made over the deal in the coming days, Sporting would apparently have to lower their demands. United aren’t prepared to pay up, believing that yielding to those demands would prompt other potential selling clubs to raise their prices too when the summer comes.