The Fans Football Blog3

British tabloid The Daily Star claims that Manchester United have made Barcelona attacking midfielder and Spanish international Xavi (28) their top transfer target.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson considers the Catalan player to be the perfect replacement for Paul Scholes, whose career at the club is coming to an end. With major doubts over the future of Owen Hargreaves as well, United needs to start moving to sign an experienced central midfielder.

With Xavi, whose contract expires in 2010, still in talks with Barcelona on a contract renewal (read more here), the English Premier League club will wait to see whether the contract situation is resolved before making a concrete move. Manchester United could make a bid of 25 million euro°.

Xavi’s agent Iván Corretja is quoted by the tabloid as admitting the difficult renewal negotiations: "We have not been able to solve the situation at Barcelona, despite some months of negotiations. We feel he should be offered a deal which reflects his performances on the pitch. Everybody at Barcelona knows that there are some big European clubs interested in Xavi, particularly in England at the moment, and we will not allow this to go on forever."

Read more:
Xavi wants to climb up in Barcelona salary rank