Jul 25, 2012 02:50 AM EDT
Manchester United Transfer News: Sao Paulo Still Hopeful of Lucas Moura Deal

Sao Paulo vice-president Joao Paulo de Jesus Lopes is still hopeful of a deal being agreed with Manchester United for Lucas Moura.

Lucas' agent Wagner Ribeiro ruled out the transfer on Tuesday, a day after Sir Alex Ferguson had confirmed his interest in the player, saying Manchester United would not increase their bid from €35 million (£27 million, $42.5 million), and his client was happy to stay at Sao Paulo.

However, the Brazilian club claim, as long as the transfer window is open, they are open to negotiations, while mentioning United were the only team to seriously make a bid for the youngster.

"I don't rule out the possibility that in the future we open negotiations with Manchester United as we received them with great courtesy," Lopes told Radio Estadao ESPN.

"And there is the possibility they come back with another offer. Their approach was serious.

"Other teams have also expressed interest for Lucas, but only through the press from their countries."

Sal Paulo's economic ownership will drop by about 10 percent after August 1, and because of that, the Brazilian club would prefer a move to be sorted out quickly, rather than risk losing about €4 million (£3.1 million, $4.8 million).

In complete contrast to Tuesday's comments, Ribeiro suggested Lucas had given his go-ahead on a move to Old Trafford. "My boss is the player. I always talk to him," Ribeiro told Radio Globo. "The person, who determines what I do, and my guidelines, is the player.

"If he says he does not want to leave Sao Paulo, I wouldn't even accept an offer.

"He told me to go ahead when I spoke about the interest of Manchester. It's a great proposal. If it was something he couldn't refuse, he would go.

"But he is also happy in Sao Paulo. If he stays at Sao Paulo, life goes on."

Ribeiro also denied suggestions he had scheduled further meetings with United. "No, it's not true.

"The only offer was made 15 days ago. I'm going to England to watch Brazil's games during the weekend."

Meanwhile, Ferguson said he was not worried about United's goal-shy performances in the pre-season games so far. United have scored only two goals in the team's opening two pre-season games, a 1-0 win over AmaZulu and a 1-1 draw with Ajax Cape Town.

"That (the lack of goals) is not the most important thing," Ferguson told MUTV. "We want to keep our heads held high in terms of our performance level and making sure we get a result.

"But at the end of the day when we get to that last pre-season game in Hanover (on 11 August) we want to be confident the team is ready for the first game of the season."

United's next warm-up game is against Shanghai Shenhua, where the English Premier  League giants will run into familiar foes in Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka. "They'll be very committed, very enthusiastic, quite aggressive and athletic," the United manager said. "We'll have to deal with that.

"We don't know if Drogba will be playing or not but you look at him and you have to say he's a handful. We've played against him many times and you can never take your eye off him. We'll have to deal with that."

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