Sao Paulo claimed they turned down a big-money offer from Manchester United for Lucas Moura.
Director Marco Aurelio Cunha said the Brazilian club received a €35million (£27million, $42.5 million) offer for the 19-year-old, but rejected it. Sao Paulo also said they value Moura only below Santos forward Neymar, and would not be ready to settle for anything less.
With Neymar rated between £40-50 million ($63-78.5 million), it would seem United will have to considerably increase their offer to stand any chance of acquiring the attacking midfielder's signature.
According to reports, Sir Alex Ferguson is keen to bring the Brazilian international to Old Trafford, and had sent chief scout Jim Lawlor to Brazil to complete a deal.
Lawlor, with Sao Paulo's permission, met with Lucas' father to try to convince the talented playmaker's family to ink a deal with United.
However, according to Cunha, the offer received was nowhere near their expectations, and the Sao Paulo man suggested they would have no problems keeping hold of their player, than letting him go for lesser price.
"Manchester United made a very important offer of €35million but they would need to produce a little more," Cunha was quoted as saying by TMW.
"For us there is only Neymar worth more, after him is Lucas and we would not want to sell for less than this sort of value.
"For us it is still better to have a good player than lots of money in the bank."
Ferguson is keen to find a long-term successor to Paul Scholes, who extended his stay at Old Trafford by one more year, and has zoned-in on Moura as the perfect replacement.
Meanwhile, Ferguson said United remain favorites to land the English Premier League title next season, after losing out to Manchester City on goal difference. "If you lose the league like that it doesn't matter who it is, it's hard to swallow," Ferguson is quoted as saying in the Daily Mail.
"But once the season is over you have to say 'right, OK, we will just go again'. That is the great quality we have at this club, we will be all right next season.
"People may say Manchester City are the team to beat but I don't agree with that. We are the team to beat because of the way we react, the way we have bounced back from losing the league in the past, and I think we will be strong this season."
Ferguson suggested, Kenny Dalglish's handling of the race row between Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra might have played a part in the Liverpool legend losing his job. "I think it must have been part of it.
"I think that the Suarez incident... John Henry has obviously looked at that and felt it wasn't handled in the right way. It certainly wasn't a nice thing to happen, you know."
Ferguson also hit back at Suarez, who recently accused United of using their "political power" to hand him an eight-match ban. "I don't think that is anything to do with Manchester United. I think that was to do with Patrice Evra.
"But it wasn't Evra's contribution, it wasn't Suarez's contribution, it was the expert they called in to explain the cultural differences. He was the guy who killed Suarez."
