Manchester United Target Mateus Fernandes Amid West Ham's Price Standoff

Manchester United have opened the door to a move for Mateus Fernandes. They just haven’t stepped through it yet.

The club are in direct contact with the West Ham United midfielder’s camp and the 21-year-old is described as “very keen” on a switch to Old Trafford, but no formal bid has landed in east London. For now, it’s a transfer being played on the phone, not on the fax machine.

The problem is obvious. The price.

West Ham’s £100m stance

West Ham signed Fernandes from Southampton last summer for just under £40m. One season on, they see a very different asset.

On his YouTube channel, Fabrizio Romano outlined the current state of play. West Ham, he says, view Fernandes as a £100m player in an ideal world. Behind that headline figure, there is a more realistic number: the expectation is that a deal could be done at around £85m — and “not less than this”.

That is a staggering jump in value in a single year, especially for a club who have just dropped into the Championship and publicly acknowledged their financial strain.

In February, West Ham announced a £104.2m loss for the last financial year and admitted they would need to sell players in the summer, even if they stayed in the Premier League. Relegation has only tightened the screw. Yet in this negotiation, they are acting like a club in control, not one desperate for liquidity.

That tension defines the whole saga.

United play the long game

Manchester United, reshaped behind the scenes by INEOS, are not prepared to be bounced into paying the asking price. Romano reports that the club are negotiating to bring the fee down from West Ham’s £85m line in the sand and are “not in a rush”.

That patience is not accidental. It is policy.

Shaun Connolly of Theatre of Red states United remain “confident of a deal” for Fernandes, but stresses that INEOS “will not allow the selling party to dictate the matter”. The message is clear: United want the player, but not at any cost.

Inside Old Trafford, staff are said to be excited by the prospect of adding the Portuguese playmaker, and discussions over personal terms are progressing smoothly. Fernandes wants the move. United want the move. The numbers, though, are still miles apart.

And time is not entirely on United’s side.

Threat of a late hijack

While United try to squeeze the price down, other clubs are circling. Romano notes that more teams are interested in Fernandes, which introduces the one factor that could blow up United’s negotiating stance: a bidding war.

If another major club decides to go hard and fast, West Ham’s leverage increases overnight. United’s “not in a rush” approach then becomes a risk rather than a strategy.

For now, the market is calm enough. There is no public auction, no flurry of rival offers. As long as that remains the case, United can lean on West Ham’s financial reality and push for a figure that looks more like a hefty profit than a lottery win.

With Fernandes eager to trade the Championship for the Champions League chase, and West Ham under pressure to balance their books, something has to give.

The question is simple: will it be the fee, the patience, or Manchester United’s nerve?