Man Utd have ignored Kobbie Mainoo's request in £51m Manuel Ugarte transfer

Manchester United appear to be ignoring Kobbie Mainoo’s idea of a dream midfield partner with the £51million signing of Manuel Ugarte. The Uruguayan jetted to England on Tuesday in order to complete a move from Paris Saint-Germain.

Scott McTominay’s imminent £25m sale to Napoli has paved the way for long-standing negotiations regarding Ugarte to be completed. Discussions had been held over a loan deal with the view to a permanent transfer, but freed-up funds have allowed the Red Devils to get their man outright.

Erik ten Hag’s outfit are set to pay £42m up front and another £9m in performance-related add-ons for Ugarte, according to The Athletic. With such a sizable fee he is expected to replace Casemiro in the United starting lineup and build a partnership with Mainoo.

The 19-year-old is expected to be a mainstay in the United team for the foreseeable future, but his plea seemingly has not been taken on board by INEOS in search of his midfield partner.

Mainoo has already been asked who his dream team-mate in the middle of the pitch would be, with the teenager naming a United legend who he won’t get the chance to play with in his career.

“I’d say Paul Scholes,” Mainoo said as he replied to the question during a fan Q&A on the club website. “Although there might not be a lot (of) defending between the two of us. But, yeah, Scholes. Scholes – definitely.

“(Because of) everything. His passing, his movement, the way he could finish. His intelligence. Yes, he was a great player.”

And although Mainoo’s request of Scholes alongside him at Old Trafford was unrealistic, given the icon’s age of 49, Mainoo had been interested in another ball-playing midfielder with himself and Bruno Fernandes.

Instead, Ugarte is of the Casemiro mould and is set to do the necessary dirty work in order to allow the likes of Mainoo and Fernandes to shine further up the pitch.

He was brought in by PSG to do the same job a year ago from Sporting, but failed to impress on his lone season in the French capital, despite making 25 Ligue 1 appearances.

With the likes of Warren Zaire-Emery, Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz, Lee Kang-in and Danilo Pereira on Luis Enrique’s books, PSG were willing to part ways with Ugarte providing they could get their money back on the transfer.

And though he is not the archetype of footballer that Mainoo ideally wants to play with, the England international did concede that his preferred partnership of Scholes would lack the necessary defensive tenacity – an area that Ugarte could improve drastically at Old Trafford.