New: Manchester United poised to beat Arsenal to Mateus Fernandes in £80m deal | OneFootball

Manchester United are reportedly looking set to beat Arsenal to the transfer of West Ham United midfielder Mateus Fernandes.

The talented young Portugal international really caught the eye with West Ham in the season just gone, despite their relegation from the Premier League.

Hammers boss Nuno Espirito Santo has previously been quoted as praising Fernandes highly, saying to Maisfutebol: “He’s (Fernandes) having a fantastic season, he works hard, and he’s very talented and disciplined.”

It now looks like Man Utd are going to beat Arsenal to this deal, with the Times reporting that the Red Devils are the favourites to land the 21-year-old for £80m.

Mateus Fernandes to become Man United’s second midfield signing of the summer

If this proves accurate, then United have made a superb start to the summer by already securing two major midfield deals.

A deal has also been agreed for MUFC to sign Ederson from Atalanta, as reported by BBC Sport and others, and Fernandes now looks set to follow.

With Casemiro leaving at the end of his contract and Manuel Ugarte performing poorly in his time in Manchester, this looks like just the kind of business United needed to get done nice and early in this window.

Mateus Fernandes for £80m – good value or not?

Fernandes costing £80m looks like a lot, but the fact is the market has changed, with smaller clubs now empowered to ask for huge money for their best players.

With Nottingham Forest asking for as much as £120m for Elliot Anderson, according to BBC Sport, then signing another top talent like Fernandes for £40m less actually looks like pretty reasonable business.

The former Southampton youngster is still pretty inexperienced, though, having only played two seasons in the Premier League, which both ended in relegation for his respective clubs.

It will be interesting to see which other targets, if any, Arsenal move onto after missing out on Fernandes, with our previous information being that .