Manchester United have made an opening transfer bid to sign Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Manuel Ugarte this summer, according to Le 10 Sport.
The Red Devils are determined to recruit a new holding midfielder and they have been linked with several names over the past few weeks. Ugarte is one of those.
It is now reported that the club have tabled an offer of £38m plus add-ons to sign the Uruguayan, who is also on the radar of Manchester City and Barcelona.
The final decision on Ugarte’s future lies on manager Luis Enrique. He could opt to keep the 23-year-old or allow him to pursue a new challenge elsewhere.
The Red Devils are currently in advanced talks to sign Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna. They are contemplating whether to trigger his £34m release clause or negotiate terms with the Serie A outfit.
Meanwhile, the club are also engaged in negotiations with Bayern Munich for Matthijs de Ligt while they have made a renewed transfer proposal to sign defender Jarrad Branthwaite from Everton.
It now appears United have made a formal approach for a fourth player in Ugarte. The 23-year-old may want to restart his career elsewhere after struggling for regular minutes under Enrique.
Ugarte, who has been described as a ‘tireless‘ midfielder by PSG’s official website, made only 26 starts in his debut season. He was an unused substitute on 14 occasions – most of those were this year.
In our view, the former Sporting man would be an ideal signing for the Red Devils, who are yearning for an upgrade on Casemiro. The Brazilian looked past his prime during the recent campaign.
Ugarte had a passing accuracy of 91 percent last term much higher than Casemiro’s 83 percent.
He won a stunning 6.4 duels and 3.9 tackles per league game with 7.2 ball recoveries. He lost possession on less than 7.5 occasions much lower than Casemiro’s average last term (12).
It seems a no-brainer for the Red Devils to sign him if Enrique gives the green light for his exit.
Stats from Transfermarkt.com & Sofascore.com
