Barcelona could reportedly stun Manchester United with a rather complicated transfer swoop for Sporting Lisbon star Bruno Fernandes.
The Portugal international has shone in his time at Sporting and attracted plenty of links with bigger clubs in recent times, though mostly with Man Utd last summer and this January.
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Despite a claim yesterday from the Guardian that the Red Devils were preparing a fresh bid and hoping to ramp up talks to sign Fernandes before the end of the transfer window, it may now be that the 25-year-old is heading to La Liga instead.
Brace yourselves, because this involves a lot of moving parts…
According to Super Deporte, Barcelona remain keen on signing Valencia striker Rodrigo Moreno, who could be good cover for the injured Luis Suarez.
However, the Catalan giants are also said to be interested in signing Fernandes, who Super Deporte state would cost around £50million.
As part of their bid to land Rodrigo, it seems, if we’ve understood this correctly, that Barca would be prepared to sign Fernandes and then immediately loan him to Valencia for the rest of the season, according to Super Deporte.
In case you hadn’t noticed, this struggling United side badly needs a player like Fernandes, so to miss out on him to a club who aren’t even planning on using him until next season would be a bitter pill to swallow.
As has often been the case in recent times, this has been an absolute shambles of a transfer window for MUFC.