A round-up of news and gossip relating to Manchester United over the past 24 hours.
As the start of the new season draws near, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson looks set to complete two of the biggest deals of the summer, according to The Independent. Ferguson missed United’s 0-0 pre-season friendly with Valerenga and the paper speculates that the manager was occupied finalising £30m and £20m deals respectively for Sao Paulo’s Lucas Moura and Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie.
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini conceded that Van Persie would not be moving to the Etihad and after Juventus cooled their interest on the striker, United were left as the sole pursuers of the Dutchman.
There have however been contradicting reports surrounding Lucas Moura’s proposed move away from Sao Paulo. Reports on the weekend claimed that the player was having a medical at United but the Brazilian officials responsible for the Brazil Olympic football team in which the 19-year-old winger has featured have denied this.
It has today been reported that Paris Saint-Germain have joined the race for Lucas’ signature and with sporting director Leonardo reportedly having strong ties with Lucas’ agent Wagner Ribeiro, the Parisians now lead the chase. The Mirror suggest that Lucas sees Manchester as ‘boring’ and would prefer a move to the French capital.
United played Norwegian side Valerenga on their DHL pre-season tour but the game ended a disappointing scoreless draw. The game did see the first appearances of this pre-season for Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Nani and Ashley Young following an extended break due to the European Championships and marked Nemanja Vidic’s return to the first-team after an 8-month layoff. The defender spoke of his joy of returning to action and was hopeful he would be fully fit by the start of the season as United struggle for fit central defenders. Patrice Evra missed the game after his wife was rushed into labour in Manchester and Phil Jones was sent home from the tour due to illness.
Manchester United have enquired about Malaga’s 20-year-old midfielder Isco. The Spanish side are struggling in their finances and look ready to sell star players Cazorla and Toulalan with Tottenham target Salomon Rondon already agreeing a move to Russian side Rubin Kazin. Isco cost Malaga £4.7m last summer in a move from fellow financially crippled Valencia and United could acquire the player at a similar price although the the Under-21 Spanish international has a release clause of £16m.
United fans will be encouraged by news that Darren Fletcher has returned to light training. The midfielder has been sidelined since last November as he battles a bowel condition but has started lightly running and doing some ball work as he sets about returning to full fitness.
image: © smemon
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