Alex Telles: The Latest on Man Utd's Pursuit of the Porto Left-Back
By Tom Gott
It seems as though Manchester United's sights are set on Porto left-back Alex Telles, who has been identified as the ideal man to compete with Luke Shaw for minutes.
Links between United and the Brazilian first appeared a few weeks ago, but since then, things have slowed down, with the Red Devils yet to actually come up with an offer to please Porto, who are keen to sell Telles as he has just one year left on his deal.
Here's a look at all the latest reports of what's going on.
United Trying to Negotiate Discount
If there's one thing United love to do, it's push for a minor discount. According to The Telegraph, that's their plan of action with this one too.
This report states that Porto are still looking for United to pay Telles' full £36.6m release clause, but Ed Woodward and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer want to save themselves some money, considering Telles will be a free agent next summer.
The 27-year-old is believed to have his heart set on a move to Old Trafford, and United want to use that to their advantage.
United 'Refuse to Meet £17m Asking Price'
The Telegraph are going with £36.6m, but like most other outlets, the Daily Mail believe his price tag sits at closer to the £17m mark - which makes the news that United have refused to pay that even more surprising.
United's main issue is that they want to keep funds spare in case of a breakthrough in talks over Borussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho, so any other business must be funded through sales. Unfortunately, that's not working out too well.
United want more than the £12m Roma have offered to part ways with Chris Smalling, while plans to sell Diogo Dalot, Sergio Romero, Marcos Rojo, Andreas Pereira and Phil Jones have all failed thus far.
Add-Ons & Clauses Holding Up Deal
With the English media seemingly divided on Telles' price tag, somewhat of a compromise is offered up by Correio da Manhã.
The belief is that Porto want to receive £17m into their own pocket, but United will need to pay more to cover some additional clauses. Galatasaray have a 10% sell-on clause, agent Pini Zahavi is demanding 15%, and then the man brokering the deal, Jorge Mendes, needs his own cut.
That means United would have to pay closer to the £25m mark to get this one over the line, which may explain the delay.
Any Alternatives?
With this deal taking a little longer than everyone involved would like, United have been linked with a handful of alternatives.
The Sun bring us Ajax's Nicolás Tagliafico, who is one of the few top-calibre left-backs still on the market. The Argentine is understood to be available for £23m.
If you want an obscure option, the Manchester Evening News add that Dynamo Kyiv's Vitaliy Mykolenko has played his way on to United's radar, with the club seemingly considering a whole host of options.