Man United have more than £86m ready to sign Benfica wonderkid with Bruno Fernandes backing him to shine at Old Trafford

Man United have more than £86m ready to sign Benfica wonderkid with Bruno Fernandes backing him to shine at Old Trafford

Manchester United have more than £86 million ready to sign Benfica wonderkid Joao Neves this summer, according to today’s edition of Record.

The Red Devils have been closely following the progress of Neves and they have sent officials to watch the teenager in action against Sporting tonight.

The fee could exceed the club-record £90m fee which was paid for Paul Pogba’s move from Juventus, but Benfica seem determined to keep hold of him.

This suggests that the wonderkid may not be allowed to leave for anything less than the £103m buy-out clause in his contract at the Portuguese club.

Neves would be an ideal replacement for Casemiro

The 19-year-old, who has been described as an ‘excellent‘ player by Bruno Fernandes, has been hugely impressive since his breakthrough with Benfica last season.

In the current campaign, he has completed 56 passes per game with an accuracy of 90 per cent.

Aside from this, the teenager has won a stunning 6.2 duels and 2.1 tackles per league game with 6.7 ball recoveries. He has completed almost 60 per cent of his dribbles.

In our view, he could be seen as an ideal replacement for Casemiro this summer. The Portuguese has better distribution and ball control than the Brazil international.

Despite his tender age, he has shown a lot of maturity. Neves and Kobbie Mainoo could form a brilliant pivot in the centre of the park for United for the next decade or so.

United have a good working relationship with his representative Jorge Mendes but they may have to trigger his £103m release clause to sign him from Benfica.

Mendes has snubbed talks over a contract renewal for Neves which suggests that the super-agent is trying to secure a big-money move for him this summer