Man Utd ‘accelerate swoop’ for West Ham star with £44m star ‘open’ to move – ‘impossible to keep’ | OneFootball

Manchester United have reportedly decided to ‘accelerate’ their move to sign West Ham standout Matheus Fernandes this summer.

The 2025/26 campaign has been incredibly disappointing for West Ham, who face relegation from the Premier League.

However, it has been a breakout season for Fernandes, who has emerged as one of the best young midfielders in the Premier League.

With that, it is hardly surprising that he is being heavily linked with a move to Man Utd, who are known to be in the market for at least two centre-midfielders this summer.

Captain Bruno Fernandes is reportedly keen for United to sign his namesake, and journalist Ben Jacobs has stated this week that they have been working on his arrival for a while and he is ‘open’ to the move.

“With Mateus Fernandes, if you’ve followed the show over the last few months, you’ll have already heard me say he’s a Manchester United target. That was backed up last week by several media outlets – nothing new,” Jacobs said on United Stand.

“Man Utd have been in talks with the player’s side for, I’m told, 4-6 weeks, and they are to establish terms to see whether the player is open, and he is, and contingent on whether West Ham go down or stay up.

“If they stay up, the deal will likely be off the table, at least without significantly overpaying, because West Ham will fight to keep, and West Ham sources even say they’ll sit down with the player and they’ll look to give him improved terms.

“If they go down it gets interesting, because the player doesn’t want to be in the Championship. Still, a payment would be needed of more than what West Ham paid, which, to my knowledge, was £38m and £4m in add-ons.

“If you’ve got a £70m budget, maybe £75m, for each midfielder, Mateus Fernandes is going to be cheaper than some of the other names, maybe giving extra shifted budget towards a midfielder approaching £100m.”

“Almost impossible to keep…”

Now, a report from Football Insider‘s Pete O’Rourke claims Man Utd are now ‘accelerating the swoop’ for Fernandes, who will be “impossible to keep” if West Ham suffer relegation.

“Man United and a number of clubs will be hoping to take advantage of any potential West Ham relegation with Mateus Fernandes,” O’Rourke told Football Insider.

“He’s on that long list of midfield targets that United are looking at.

“If West Ham go down, it’ll be almost impossible to keep hold of the Portuguese midfielder because I’m sure he won’t want to be playing in the Championship.

“There’ll be a number of clubs, not just Manchester United who will be keeping tabs on Fernandez and West Ham’s survival fight as well.

“And I think it’ll be real tough battle for West Ham to keep hold of him, especially if they go down.”