Tottenham have won the £85million race for West Ham midfielder Mateus Fernandes after outbidding Manchester United.
United pushed hard to sign Fernandes but there is a firm belief they will only buy players at the right valuation and players who really want to play for the club.
The Portugal international’s preference remained open throughout the process of negotiation.
Pointing to their transfer business last summer, United are prepared to remain patient and buy the right targets at the right price.
The figure agreed with West Ham is understood to be £85m in guaranteed payments, beyond where United’s valuation was.
Tottenham have been aggressive in their pursuit of targets for Roberto de Zerbi and are intent on adding Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali also.
Spurs have won the £85m race for West Ham’s Mateus Fernandes after outbidding Man United
They have already agreed on free agents Martin Dubravka, Marcos Senesi and and Andy Robertson while Jan Paul van Hecke arrived from Brighton for £52million.
They also want to add a forward and a winger with Savinho if Manchester City still in their sights.
Despite interest from Nottingham Forest and Napoli, they have yet to receive a bid for wantaway midfielder Lucas Bergvall and are awaiting a new offer from Brighton for Luka Vuscovic.
Spurs have been linked with Monaco’s Folarin Balogun but club sources say they are exploring other targets.
United, meanwhile, will now look at other targets. Bournemouth are so far resisting proposals for Alex Scott but others are on United’s radar too if that line of enquiry proves equally futile.
United’s pursuit of Fernandes was still considered to be in the balance on Monday.
They had offered a more structured deal but were still short of where Spurs were prepared to go in their continued efforts to deliver De Zerbi’s desired targets.
They upped the ante on Tuesday to ensure Fernandes joins them.
The deal is a huge victory for West Ham as they make a £45m profit – minus the £6.4m due to Southampton for their sell-on percentage – on a player that cost them £40m last summer. He made just 38 appearances for the club as they were relegated to the Championship.
