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It has been revealed that Manchester United were one of the teams who had submitted an offer worth €70m for in-demand striker Goncalo Ramos.
The Reds have been involved in a long and public search for a new striker and have considered a long list of names including World Cup breakout star Ramos.
Up until a few days ago, as The Peoples Person reported, United were thought to be still maintaining a significant interest in the Benfica man, with the major obstacle being a lack of consensus as to his valuation.
United had initially approached Benfica to explore the possibility of a cash-plus-player deal involving Alex Telles.
However, this was turned down by both Benfica and Telles.
Now, it has been revealed by Record that United had returned with an improved offer of €65million and a further €5million in add-ons.
This second offer was, apparently, also rejected by Benfica, who are still holding out for €80million.
Part of the problem is the fact that Benfica will have to pay out up to 20 per cent in commissions to agents Jorge Mendes and Mohamed Afazal, the present and former agent respectively.
Ramos’ contract stipulates that each of the two agents will be owed a 10 per cent commission if Benfica do sell him before August 30th.
Benfica will, therefore, only receive €64m even if Ramos is sold for €80m this summer.
With United and Atalanta now having agreed on a fee for the transfer of Rasmus Hojlund instead, Old Trafford can be ruled out as a potential destination for Ramos.
As previously reported, the fee for Hojlund will be a base fee of €70million, with €5million in easily achievable add-ons and €10m made up of performance-related objectives that are expected to be hard to attain.
The overall fee is nearly identical to what Benfica were asking for Ramos.
This strongly suggests that Hojlund is Erik ten Hag’s preferred signing.
With the much-desired new striker taken care of, United are expected to turn their attention to completing a move for Sofyan Amrabat.
