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Barcelona stumped over Manchester United transfer speculations about Ansu Fati

Reports in Spain had been recently circulating that Manchester United had opened talks with Barcelona over the signing of 18-year-old youngster Ansu Fati.

Not surprisingly Barcelona director Xavier Vilajoana has unsurprisingly denied the club has held talks with United over a transfer for Ansu Fati and confirmed the 17-year-old is not up for sale.

Fati is regarded as one of the club’s brightest prospects and became Barcelona’s youngest ever goal scorer earlier this season.

The youngster has made 24 appearances in the first team this season, finding the back of the net five times.

Spanish outlet had made a bold claim that United viewed Fati as a most likely alternative to Borussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho and had begun talks with super agent Jorge Mendes to engineer a move to Old Trafford, even claiming to the extent that United were willing to pay an ‘astronomical amount’ in order to secure his signature.

However, Vilajoana has openly and categorically dismissed the validity of the reports, insisting there has been no contact with United over the youngster.

“For us, there’s no story with Ansu, we have never spoken about selling him,” he told the same outlet which produced the spurious report. “We won’t use players from the academy to make cash.

“In principle, we have no intention of selling the players we believe will make the first team.”

MEN Sport understands United remain firmly focused on signing Sancho from Dortmund in the upcoming window but have identified Velez Sarsfield star Thiago Almada and former Manchester City winger Rabbi Matondo as back-up options.