Manchester United are switching the focus of their search to sign a new midfielder away from Manuel Ugarte and on to other candidates.
United have been exploring a deal for Ugarte but they do not intend to meet Paris Saint-Germain’s asking price, which is around the €60million (£51.4m) fee they paid to sign him from Sporting Lisbon in 2023.
The clubs are quite far apart in their respective valuations of the Uruguay international and, as things stand, United are looking elsewhere.
Only if PSG reduce their request is it possible that the Old Trafford side might return to the table — but so far no progress has been made.
The view at United is that they are only willing to pay what they deem to be the correct fee for each transfer target and negotiations will not be allowed to drag on until the end of the market.
Consequently, discussions between the Premier League and Ligue 1 counterparts has cooled but PSG are relaxed — with vast interest over a move for the 23-year-old from alternative suitors.
Ugarte made 37 appearances across all competitions for Luis Enrique’s side in his debut season at the Ligue 1 club, helping the team to the league trophy alongside the Coupe de France and Trophee des Champions titles.
He made just 21 league starts for PSG and while he started five of the club’s six Champions League group stage matches, he was not named in the starting line-up in any of their six knockout matches.
Ugarte began his career at Uruguayan club Fenix before joining Famalicao of Portugal in December 2020, and Sporting in the summer of 2021.
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