Manchester United offer Thiago stunning €7.2m-a-year contract

Jun 30, 2013 7:24:00 AM

The Premier League champions have agreed terms with the Barcelona star after talks with his representatives, and will triple his salary if a move is completed

EXCLUSIVE
By Paul Clennam

Manchester United will triple Thiago's salary to €140,000-a-week if the midfielder completes his move from Barcelona this summer.

Goal reported on Thursday that the 22-year-old is set for talks with Camp Nou officials where he will confirm his intention to leave the club after agreeing terms in principle with United.

Sources have said that United are confident of completing a €18 million deal for the midfielder despite late interest from Bayern Munich and Barcelona's attempts to keep Thiago at the club after chairman Sandro Rosell met with his father Mazinho last week.

Thiago is on his post-season break and Barcelona officials are said to have given up hope of convincing the midfielder to stay after he raised doubts over forthcoming first-team opportunities at Camp Nou ahead of next summer's World Cup.

His current contract runs until 2015 but his exit clause plummeted from €90 million to €18m after he failed to participate for a stipulated amount of minutes in the 2012-13 season.

Speaking in February, the midfielder confirmed he wanted "to get as many minutes as I can" and was disappointed to be a peripheral figure in Barca's midfield behind the likes of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas.

However, the buy-out clause is due to return to €90m on August 1 if a deal for him to leave is not completed by then.

The €7.2m wage package prepared by United would see the midfielder's wages tower over those earned by the likes of Phil Jones, Danny Welbeck and Shinji Kagawa, who all earn slightly above €81,000-a-week.

As such, United are keen to push through a cut-price deal for the 22-year-old in the coming weeks, with David Moyes set to officially begin his tenure at Old Trafford on Monday ahead of the first-team squad reporting back for training at Carrington two days later on July 3. ------------------------ goal.com