Manchester United have been told they will need to pay more than £56m to land Bruno Fernandes from Sporting Lisbon.
Reports in Portugal have suggested the Red Devils are ready to launch a bid of £50m or £56m for the Portgual playmaker.
But Sporting Lisbon's president, Frederico Varandas, has offered an update on the potential outgoing of their star player and insisted those figures will be nowhere near enough.
United are believed to disagree with Sporting's valuation of the 24-year-old, causing the move to stall.
They could now face paying a huge fee to land the free-scoring midfielder.
“I don’t know if there are many or if there are few [interested clubs],” Frederico Varandas told RTP at Lisbon Airport.
“What I know, a lot has been spoken of values, coming to the press, €55m, €62m… for that he doesn’t leave, for sure.
“If Bruno Fernandes leaves, players with quality will come. But if Bruno leaves.”
Asked again if there had been an official bid made for Fernandes, Varandas reportedly said "no" before walking away.
Varandas' comments come after Solskjaer insisted the club will not pay over the odds amid links to Fernandes and a £80m move for Harry Maguire.
"We have been linked with so many players," explained the United boss.
"I'm sure you don't believe every single player that we've been linked with, but I think that Manchester United sometimes have, because of the wealth, maybe we have had to pay more, a bigger premium to get players in, and that's just the world we live in.
"And we've taken our time, we're not going to overpay, but we have to get the right people in, the right players."
varogres
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I hope so. As a neutral, I'd rather see Man U sign Savic just so I can watch them play with a squad of technically gifted giants. Also, Sporting recent transfers have flopped, with the club and fans always claiming that the player is worth more than what is being offered. The PL has the best Gks on average and most of the goals he scored would have been easily stopped there. And with 75% passing accuracy, he is not worth more than that. It is going to be tougher for him to score there and he will be playing in a league where the requirements to succeed as a midfielder is to get around 85% passing accuracy. Savic is at 79% and can handle the physical side of the game better.