Neil Custis, who covers Manchester United for The Sun newspaper, wrote this morning that Man United made a £38m deadline day attempt last week to land Brazil superstar Neymar.
The club record bid failed when the 20-year future superstar said he wanted to stay in Brazil until after his country had hosted the 2014 World Cup.
Santos have denied that they received such a bid and Santos football director Felipe Faro, speaking to Globo Esporte said:
“I have no idea where that came from, but it’s not true”
If the story is true, it marks a change in attitude by Sir Alex Ferguson this summer. First he offered over £34m for Neymar’s Brazil teammate Lucas, and then the Neymar bid. If United had landed Neymar, it would have taken their summer spending to around £80m.
It looks like SAF has realized that with the petrol dollars at Manchester City, Chelsea and PSG that if United are to stay on top both domestically and in Europe that he has to spend big.
I wonder what the Glazers think of this change in strategy as an increased transfer budget will pit pressure on the club’s cash flow to service the debt that the Glazers have dumped on the club.