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Manchester United goal Joao Neves is about to signal for Paris Saint-Germain from Benfica, Fabrizio Romano has confirmed.
The Italian switch guru has given his trademark ‘Right here We Go’ seal of approval to the transfer, price a possible €70 million, with midfielder Renato Sanches heading within the reverse other way on mortgage.
🚨🔴🔵 João Neves to Paris Saint-Germain, right here we go! Deal being signed proper now between golf equipment.
€60m fastened payment, €10m add-ons and Renato Sanches to Benfica on mortgage.
João set to journey to Paris for medical, needed to be this week… and will likely be this week.
First signing, achieved. 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/4c3Tcbl4hL
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 31, 2024
Tweet: “João Neves to Paris Saint-Germain, right here we go! Deal being signed proper now between golf equipment. €60m fastened payment, €10m add-ons and Renato Sanches to Benfica on mortgage. João set to journey to Paris for medical, needed to be this week… and will likely be this week. First signing, achieved.”
Neves, 19, had reportedly emerged as a goal for United earlier in the summertime however their advances had been rebuffed by Benfica. Officers on the Portuguese large had been adamant they might solely promote their midfield starlet for his launch clause – a staggering €120 million price ticket.
INEOS, of their first switch window on the helm at Outdated Trafford, had little interest in paying such a determine for a participant with just one 12 months of senior expertise and rapidly moved on to different targets in numerous positions.
There was more likely to be a way of remorse amongst United’s recruitment workforce, nonetheless, given the 19-year-old’s prodigious expertise and his potential to fit straight right into a place of appreciable weak point for Erik ten Hag’s squad.
The decline of Casemiro, and the apparent deficiencies of Sofyan Amrabat and Scott McTominay, had left the Dutch supervisor in determined want of reinforcements within the defensive midfield place – exactly the place Neves has established himself at Benfica over the previous eighteen months.
There’s a completeness to the teenager’s recreation which belies his years.
He ranks extremely throughout possession statistics, combining correct passing with the power to be progressive, whereas additionally demonstrating elite dribbling expertise, usually taking over opposition midfielders and leaving them for lifeless with a burst of acceleration.
But Neves combines these qualities in possession with equal dominance out of it. He’s a fearsome ball-winner, rating extremely for tackles, interceptions and blocks. He even ranks within the 82nd percentile for profitable aerial duels, regardless of possessing solely a 5’7 body.
Put merely, he’s a whole midfielder; and it’s apparent why each United and PSG had been eager to safe his companies this summer time. Which is why Romano’s replace of the French champions having agreed a deal price a base determine of €60 million might elevate some alarm bells at Outdated Trafford, given it’s half the worth United officers had been quoted at first of the window (and Renato Sanches is rarely a €60 million participant in 1,000,000 years).
However, there might but be gentle on the finish of the tunnel from this deal for Neves.
United have been locked in negotiations with PSG over a transfer for Manuel Ugarte, the combative Uruguayan midfielder. The Ligue 1 aspect are demanding a value – believed to be as excessive as €70 million – which United don’t have any intent on paying.
Nonetheless, given PSG are extraordinarily eager to promote Ugarte, having now already agreed a deal to signal his alternative, United might achieve a stronger hand in negotiations and, accordingly, a extra affordable compromise could possibly be struck.
Romano even revealed the French membership could also be open to a “mortgage transfer with an obligation to purchase” – a method of deal which is able to United circumvent the acute pressures of economic honest play.
Whereas there’ll undoubtedly be disappointment at Outdated Trafford over the failure to safe a expertise like Neves, the Benfica starlet should still play a key position this summer time in serving to the Crimson Devils remedy their midfield points.
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