Mata on way to United for record €45m

Manchester United are close to completing a club record €45m deal to sign Chelsea’s Spain international Juan Mata.

Mata, 25, who did not train with the Chelsea squad yesterday, is now set for a medical after the clubs agreed a fee for him and the deal could be wrapped up as soon as later today.

The Spaniard’s representatives have been in England working towards a deal all week and United and Chelsea, who still retain a hope of signing Wayne Rooney in the summer, made a breakthrough in negotiations yesterday.

He will sign a four-and-a-half-year contract worth around €183,000 a week, offering a significant increase on the €85,000 a week he has been earning at Chelsea.

The fee beats the previous best of €37m that United paid Tottenham for striker Dimitar Berbatov in 2008.

Mata, who joined Chelsea from Valencia for around €28m in 2011, has not played since showing frustration at being substituted in his team’s 3-0 victory at Southampton on January 1 and has started just 11 of the Blues’ 22 Premier League matches, with Jose Mourinho preferring the likes of Oscar, Willian and Edin Hazard.

Although Mata has not been a disruptive influence, Mourinho has decided that the price is a good one for a player who does not figure in his long-term plans.

While many feel that David Moyes’s should have been focusing on bolstering his defence and central midfield, the acquisition of Mata will be a major boost following the frustrations of last summer in the transfer market.

A proven Premier League performer, Mata is adaptable and can play in an attacking three, behind two strikers and as part of a four-man midfield.

There have been reports that not even the addition of Mata can persuade Rooney, whose contract expires in the summer of 2015, to stay on at Old Trafford. But, with United just six points outside the top four, a front three of Mata, Rooney and Robin van Persie would give Moyes real confidence that a place in the Champions League can still be attained.

Moyes is clearly unconvinced by Shinji Kagawa, who has struggled to make an impression since arriving at Old Trafford in 2012, and none of Ashley Young, Nani or Antonio Valencia have made themselves selection certainties since the new manager took over last summer.

Mata is keen for regular football to maintain his hopes of starting for Spain in this summer’s World Cup in Brazil and is not put off by United’s toils under new manager Moyes.

After their problems in the transfer market last summer, when they failed to bring in a string of big names, the arrival of Mata will lift Moyes and chief executive Edward Woodward.

Moyes is keen to add another left-back, wants more central midfielders and could move on all three of Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Rio Ferdinand at the end of the season.