Manchester United on verge of completing £50m transfer for PSG midfielder Manuel Ugarte

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Manchester United are close to landing their main midfield target this summer after agreeing a £50.7m deal with Paris Saint-Germain for Manuel Ugarte.

The FA Cup winners will pay an initial €50m for the 23-year-old, with a possible extra €10m in add-ons, and he will undergo a medical.

Ugarte’s arrival will take their summer spending to around £200m after buying centre-backs Leny Yoro and Matthijs de Ligt, full-back Noussair Mazraoui and forward Joshua Zirkzee.

The signing of Ugarte means United will have strengthened every outfield department of their side. They believe the former Sporting Lisbon player, who was named in the team of the tournament at the Copa America, is one of the best young midfielders in the game.

It will partly be funded by the sale of Scott McTominay to Napoli, with the Scotland international set to complete a £25m move to the Serie A side.

United were reluctant to lose McTominay, a valuable squad member who scored 10 goals last season, but they could not guarantee him first-team football and the way PSR rules operate, the sale of homegrown players can be particularly valuable.

McTominay had been associated with United for 22 years after joining their youth programme at the age of just five.

United had decided their priority was to bring in a more defensive midfielder, with Ugarte likely to challenge Casemiro for his place, but they and PSG had long held different valuations of the Uruguayan. However, there was confidence at Old Trafford that a deal could be struck and a fee has now been agreed.