Manchester United will have been watching Alvaro Fernandez closely as Benfica suffered defeat to Barcelona on Tuesday night.
Manchester United need reinforcements under Ruben Amorim and left wing back is a position of utmost importance.
Diogo Dalot has been playing in that role but it’s clear that he isn’t entirely comfortable there.
United are now prioritising the signing of a new left wing back and one clear target has emerged.
United have held talks to sign Patrick Dorgu from Lecce and will push to bring the Danish talent to Old Trafford.
Napoli are also chasing Dorgu though and United will need to have alternative targets in mind.
Alvaro Fernandez suffers Champions League defeat
One man on United’s radar is Benfica’s Alvaro Fernandez, who also goes by Alvaro Carreras.
United sold Fernandez to Benfica last summer after a successful loan spell in Portugal.
The Spaniard has excelled this season and is now emerging as one of the top young left backs in Europe.
United are interested in re-signing Fernandez and a buy-back clause does exist for Amorim.
Tuesday represented a great chance for United to watch Fernandez in action with Benfica hosting Barcelona in the Champions League.
Fernandez showed off his attacking brilliance with a superb assist to set up Vangelis Pavlidis to score inside the first two minutes.
Benfica went 3-1 and 4-2 up but ended up losing 5-4 as Raphinha scored a stunning last-gasp winner for Barca.
Fernandez gave away a penalty on Lamine Yamal as part of that collapse with Benfica somehow throwing the game away.
Zero Zero in Portugal still rated Fernandez at 7 out of 10, behind only hat-trick hero Pavlidis in their Benfica ratings.
Fernandez is still better going forward than he is defensively and his history of playing as a wing back at Preston North End may just make him ideal for Amorim’s 3-4-3 approach.
Barcelona stance on Alvaro Fernandez
United’s £16.7million buy-back clause on Fernandez is certainly appealing and would be much cheaper than signing Dorgu.
Benfica are demanding a huge price to everybody else though and that means Barcelona are being ruled out.
SPORT claim that Barcelona are interested in signing Fernandez with Deco keen to bring him to the Camp Nou.
The problem is that Benfica want €50million (£42million) for Fernandez and Barcelona just can’t strike that deal.
United have a real upper hand over the competition here and whilst Barcelona appear to be moving on, a return to Old Trafford can’t be ruled out.
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