The Manchester Evening News is reporting that Jose Mourinho's pursuit of Jose Fonte is leading to a stand off with the Old Trafford hierarchy.

The local paper is usually the closest to any football club and in Manchester it is no different, so when the Manchester evening news makes a comment about either United or City, then you have to take a little more notice of it than you would most media outlets.

Today the MEN is saying that Jose Mourinho is in a standoff with the Manchester United board and the reason for that stand off is his attempts to sign Jose Fonte.

The issue is the number of central defenders who are already at Old Trafford, Mourinho already has Phil Jones, Marcus Rojo, Daley Blind, Chris Smalling and new signing Eric Bailly who can play in the centre of the defence and the United board want to see one possibly two of these off loaded before they sanction a new central defensive signing in.

The situation is compounded by the fact that there are players surplus to requirements in other areas, notably in the centre of midfield where last summers purchases of Sebastien Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schniederlin are already seen as being surplus to requirements and with a combined transfer fee of £40 million for the pair and very large wages, United are keen to see them off the books as well.

So far this summer United have spent approaching £150 million and have recouped only around £6 million in transfers, the issue with the United board is not just transfer fees though, but as mentioned the salary's being paid to players who will not see much first team action ths season.

Jose Mourinho is not bothered about this, he is used to Chelsea where money is no object, so he is intending to continue on in that vein at Old Trafford and is surprised that he is being questioned.

The United board have seen much money wasted in the past few seasons and without Champions League football they do not have the income to sustain big wages as they did in the past.

There is also the question of whether the board actually consider £12 million for Fonte a good deal, they know that if they sanction it and the deal is actually done, this is money down the drain, it is a stop gap signing from Mourinho and that at best Fonte will play games this season and not many after that.

However he would be on very big wages that he would not get elsewhere and therefore the Unite board would find as they are now doing with Schweinsteiger that the player is relucutant to take a massive pay cut to leave and that no other clubs willwant to pay anywhere near what he is on at United.

The feeling around the club is that this is Mourinho doing a favour for his old mate Jorge Mendes who in turn is doing a favour for his client Jose Fonte, Chelsea were concerned in the past that Mourinho and Mendes were too close and that too many deals done by Mourinho were for clients of the Portugese agent.

All of this is of course good news for Saints, the MEN say that time is running out for Mourinho to clear out the players not in his plans and that being the case he will struggle to get any more money from his board unless it is in a position that does not have the quality options available, in the centre of defence that is certainly not the case.

Photo: Action Images

JDawg added 10:08 - Aug 23 I don't want Fonte to go. But if Fonte and Manure really want to get together Schniederlin and Smalling* coming the other way might soften the blow! *I'm not 100% sure about Smalling, but it was thought he had potential and I do know he is a lot better than Rojo. Or is it Jones they are trying to get rid of? (he's still better than Rojo)
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LordDZLucan added 10:24 - Aug 23 Schneiderlin and Smalling for Fonte. There's money in the bank so we should be able to afford the wages. Maybe we could get Rashford in as well even if it's only on loan! Only problem is I've just woken up!
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SanMarco added 10:54 - Aug 23 Yes Lord Lucan - and I hear Pogba has always wanted to play for us !!
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law101 added 11:02 - Aug 23 Schneiderlin will NOT return. I expect he will fight for his place at least until January but we would be well down the list of suitors with Spurs and Everton likely destinations. United set to sell Jones to Stoke however you would think Les and the board would either have a replacement lined up or refuse to entertain the idea of selling Fonte this late in the window. Big week coming up for Saints! We have to get it right in the transfer market and would like to see a Wilfred Bony type of striker brought in, especially at the price quoted in the media. Another CB and AM is also essential....but is it likely to happen. No.

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DPeps added 11:36 - Aug 23 At the risk of repeating myself, Fonte could have been sensibly sold this summer under different circumstances, but the time for doing that has passed now. Unless we have a highly competent replacement lined up we shouldn't even be entertaining selling Jose. By highly competent I mean an international who has lots of experience of playing in a top European league, probably not an unwanted Utd CB. Bony signing is a good call, but I imagine the stumbling block there will be wages. Morgan is not coming back. I wish fans would stop suggesting it because it gets my hopes up for a few seconds every time!

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BoondockSaint added 13:19 - Aug 23 Stop it! They have plenty of money! Are they paying Jose to run the team or not? I don't care how many backs they have on the books, Fonte will start immediately. Look at them last week-if we still had Mane, he would have blazed right past them. As I have posted before, they need Fonte as a role model on and off the field, a proven Prem defender to mentor the youngsters Wouldn't mind getting Mata-not sure about his weekly wages. They say he is available even though him and Jose are on slightly better terms than they were at Chelski. Only trouble is, if they are willing to sell him, rely on Les to put in a bid of three shillings and sixpence!

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saintmark1976 added 17:31 - Aug 23 BoondockSaint, as much as that?
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Happy_Jack added 20:07 - Aug 23 I like the choice of photograph. Was it the moment Ibrahimovic out jumped Fonte to power home United's opener?
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halftimeorange added 20:35 - Aug 23 Fonte to Man U, Martina to Everton, Clasie to Galatasaray, Rodriguez to WBA, Reed to Barnsley and nobody coming the other way. What on earth is going on? Perhaps there's a plan to sell the Saints as a going Championship concern. This is a very unhappy and unsettling time for Saints fans. We can only hope that Uncle Les is going to pull a couple of surprise rabbits from his hat. The impending visit of doom-laden Sunderland becomes more worrying by the minute.

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aceofthebase added 14:39 - Aug 24 The reason Martina may go to Everton is because RK ( spit) knows that he is better than Cedric, and he is right (by at least 3 inches lol), so I'm hoping we keep Martina.
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