Greenwood transfer: Marseille 'very confident' of agreeing deal with Man Utd

Marseille are growing increasingly confident they can land Mason Greenwood from Manchester United this summer.

The Red Devils are looking to offload the forward, who spent last season away on loan at Getafe, and there are a host of clubs lining up to sign Greenwood. United are looking to recoup a decent fee for their academy graduate - which has put off certain buyers.

Lazio, who are among those in the race to sign the player, have tabled a £17million offer, which falls short of United's valuation. Marseille are therefore confident they can see off the Italian side in the transfer race, according to reports.

That said, the French outfit, whilst offering more than Lazio, are still short of the £30m the Manchester outfit are demanding before they let Greenwood depart on a permanent basis.

Marseille hired Roberto De Zerbi recently following his exit from Brighton and the Italian is looking to make huge strides with the Ligue 1 outfit - claiming he can "help the club regain the position that Marseille deserves" - and he believes Greenwood, who scored ten times in La Liga last season, can aid those ambitions.

United are desperate to offload Greenwood before their pre-season plans begin, as was reported by Mirror Football. They will have to allow the 22-year-old striker to report back for pre-season training if no deal can be struck with another club.

Erik ten Hag's squad report back to Carrington on July 8 and Greenwood is expected to show up if he remains on the club's books. The major decision then facing the hierarchy at Old Trafford is whether or not to allow Greenwood to travel to America next month if he hasn't been sold.

Co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS team fear that allowing Greenwood to be involved on the trip would go down badly with club sponsors.

Getafe had been keen to keep the forward in Spain but they are likely to be outgunned financially this summer despite their optimism. Club president Angel Torres had said: "I think we're 92% today that he's staying. Nothing has changed, we're dependent on Manchester."