Man Utd shoot themselves in the foot as Ugarte Plan B signs for rivals

Tom Weber

• Updated: 19 Aug 2024 20:09 BST
• 3 min read

Manchester United rejected two bids from Fulham for Scott McTominay - and now they are going for one of Erik ten Hag's targets.

The Red Devils are open to selling the Scot at the right price and if he expresses a desire to move on. Thus far, only Fulham have made concrete offers for McTominay, both of which were rejected by Man Utd.

Now, they are set to pay the price for this. According to Sky Sports and The Athletic, Fulham have moved on from McTominay and are closing in on a deal to sign Sander Berge from Burnley.

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The Norwegian will have his medical in London tomorrow after the Cottagers lodged a bid in excess of €25 million. This, of course, is bad news for Man Utd because Berge was their contingency plan in case they missed out on top target Manuel Ugarte.

Man Utd make progress but deal not done

As things stand, a transfer for the Uruguay international is still very much on. In fact, earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that the Red Devils were making progress in their pursuit of the PSG midfielder, with whom personal terms have been agreed for weeks.

However, there is still the significant hurdle of the Parisians' hefty asking price of €60m-€70m. PSG signed him from Sporting CP for €60m last summer and are determined to recoup their original outlay.

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Man Utd are unwilling to spend that much and are currently unable to spend this even if they wanted to. They need outgoings first, having already spent lavishly on Leny Yoro, Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui.

If Man Utd manage to land Ugarte, people will swiftly forget about Berge. However, if they end up missing out on both, the decision to not make a move for the Norwegian - especially for such a relatively low price - could prove to be a costly one.