Manchester United MUST sign Bruno Fernandes says Nicol
Manchester United have been heavily linked with a move for Sporting Lisbon star Bruno Fernandes, although Tottenham are considered frontrunners in the race for his signature.
The Portugal international struck 31 times from the middle of the park last season and, as a result, is now attracting interest from Europe's elite.
Journalist Duncan Castles has claimed Jorge Mendes is now involved in the player's future, despite his agent actually being Miguel Pinho.
And he claims that conflict over Mourinho and De Gea has seen Mendes' stock fall at United - damaging their hopes of landing Fernandes in the process.
“I spoke to someone who had talked to Miguel Pinho, Fernandes’ direct agent, [on Thursday] night, and Pinho was saying he was very confident about Tottenham and expected that to progress [on Friday],” he said on Reach Plc’s Transfer Window podcast.
“And also indicating that Bruno would be prepared to put pressure on Sporting to try and facilitate that move, I think after they’ve played the Super Cup game against Benfica this weekend, which is very important to Sporting.
“But Pinho had gone quiet on the Manchester United end of things.
"So to an extent you can take that as an indicator in that there’s a greater player in the deal, which is [super-agent] Jorge Mendes.
“I think Mendes has a kind of love-hate relationship with Manchester United.
Man Utd will not get Bruno Fernandes because of David De Gea and Jose Mourinho (Image: GETTY)
Man Utd's relationship with Jorge Mendes has changed in recent times (Image: GETTY)
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"He has done a lot of deals with Ed Woodward in the past, not all of those deals have worked from Manchester United’s perspective.
“There’s been a lot of conflict over obviously Jose Mourinho and David de Gea.
“So, again, I don’t think there’s any guarantee that Mendes’ involvement makes Manchester United an obvious favourite destination for Fernandes and certainly Tottenham are the club who made a bid.
“We said on Wednesday there was only one other club who had made a bid previously, that was Olympique Marseille.
"I’m told that bid was for €35m [£32m] and it was obviously dismissed by Sporting as not being anywhere close to the amount they expect to receive for him.”