Manchester United suffer blow in pursuit of Atletico Madrid midfielder

Manchester United will have to pay Saul Niguez's €150m (£131.9m) release clause if they want to sign the Atletico Madrid midfielder this summer, reports Marca.

United have a long-standing interest in the Spain international and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is reportedly ready to ramp up the club's pursuit this summer.

The Red Devils were understood to be willing to pay as much as £90m for the Saul but Atletico have no desire to even discuss the 25-year-old's potential departure.

It means in order for United to land Saul they will have to shatter their club transfer record and trigger his eye-watering buy-out clause.

Saul still has six years left to run on his current Atletico contract after remarkably penning a nine-year deal with the club in the summer of 2017.

The Atletico ace isn't so much a regular goalscorer but when he does find the back of the net it tends to be an important goal. In fact, all 10 of his Champions League goals have opened the scoring.