Club make unusual public statement to address claim Manchester United have priority clause for signing

Benfica aren’t any happy with the English reports saying that Manchester United have the priority for the signing of João Neves.

The club today released an official statement dismissing any right that the Red Devils would have over the midfielder.

The Eagles claim they didn’t and do not intend to do any agreement for the player, who’s protected by a €120m release clause.

Earlier today, we had already seen reports from the English media giving their view on Manchester United’s interest in Neves.

While reports from England claimed the Red Devils had the priority, Correio da Manhã came up to say they were actually just getting closer to Benfica on that matter, as their interest was discussed during the negotiation of Alvaro Fernandez’s move to Lisbon.

It indeed doesn’t even make sense that Manchester United have a priority for Neves, since Benfica are making it very clear that the midfielder is only leaving for the release clause.

When dismissing transfer news, the Eagles normally just have an official source speaking to local newspapers. This time, with a statement on the website, it seems they wanted to send a bigger and stronger message.