Man Utd Transfer News

United Set To End Moura Chase After Seeing £30m Bid Rejected

Manchester United are set to end their chase for Lucas Moura after seeing an improved £30m bid rejected by Sao Paulo for the highly-rated attacking midfielder

by
Football Talk
July 17, 2012

With the summer transfer window in full swing, Football Talk will be keeping you up-to-date with all the latest transfer news throughout the summer. Today, Manchester United are set to pull out of the race to sign Lucas Moura.

Manchester United are set to end their chase for Lucas Moura after seeing an improved £30m bid rejected by Sao Paulo, according to the Daily Mail.

The report claims that the Brazilian outfit have indicated they want to make at least £23.5m from any sale, and with Moura entitled to 20% of any transfer fee due to an agreement in his contract, United were confident they could strike a deal for around £30m.

However, it appears that latest offer has been knocked back by president Juvenal Juvencio leaving the proposed transfer hanging in the balance.

Sir Alex Ferguson sees the 19-year-old as an important addition as he looks to wrestle the Premier League title back from rivals City, and chief scout Jim Lawlor was sent to Brazil with the mission of concluding the deal.

But it seems he may be heading home empty handed after the latest set back. Before meeting with Lawlor last week, Juvencio claimed his club were prepared to gamble by not selling Moura and revealed he told Inter Milan as much when he met with them.

‘It is a gamble not selling Lucas, but one we are prepared to take.

‘When I sat down with Inter Milan’s sporting director Marco Branca recently, I told him not to bother talking about figures. We are not interested in that.’

Juvencio is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail

United’s chances of landing the highly-rated attacking midfielder will diminish further next month, as Moura’s cut of any fee will increase from 20% to 30% from August 1. With Sao Paulo looking for around £25m themselves, the overall deal could sky-rocket to around the £40m mark in a few weeks time.

United will not consider paying anywhere near that kind of figure, so only have two weeks to strike a deal or risk losing out on one of their top summer transfer targets.

Would you pay over £30m for Moura? Get involved in the comments section.