Newcastle and Aston Villa attempts to sign Manchester United midfielder – 24-year-old wants transfer sorting

Aston Villa and Newcastle United have tried to sign Manchester United’s Manuel Ugarte.

The Red Devils invested around €50m to bring the midfielder to Old Trafford from Paris Saint-Germain in August 2024. He finished his debut season at Manchester United with 2,893 minutes from 45 matches.

However, he hasn’t enjoyed regular game time this season and Aston Villa and Newcastle United wanted to offer him an escape route.

The Uruguay international has 915 minutes from 23 matches and his role didn’t change after Michael Carrick replaced Ruben Amorim in January.

His Premier League stats this season are as follows:

• Appearances: 21
• Starts: 7
• Total minutes: 810
• Minutes per game: 39

His situation at Manchester United has already seen a few clubs come forward to try and sign him.

New opportunity for Aston Villa and Newcastle United

On Monday, Sport Witness covered claims from Italy that Juventus sporting director Marco Ottolini will follow Manuel Ugarte closely when Uruguay face Algeria at the Allianz Stadium [Juve’s home stadium] later today.

Ovación – in Uruguay – back that up and share their own updates on this case. This is when Aston Villa and Newcastle United are named.

The Serie A side aren’t the only Italian team in the mix as Napoli are also showing interest in the player. He’s open to making a switch to Italy or Spain.

Atlético Madrid., Aston Villa and Newcastle United have tried to sign him on loan. It’s quite possible the Premier League duo could have made approaches in the winter market.

Unai Emery’s side and the Magpies wanted to sign him on loan, but Manchester United rejected their approaches. The opportunity is now there for Aston Villa and Newcastle United.

The Old Trafford club are now open to letting the 24-year-old leave after this season.

Galatasaray and unnamed Saudi Arabian clubs have come forward but Ugarte has already rejected them. His aims to continue in a top European league and that’s possible by joining Aston Villa or Eddie Howe’s side.

Ugarte intends to leave Manchester United before the World Cup kicks off on June 11th and whether that’ll be possible remains to be seen.

Contract, value and agent info

Manuel Ugarte has a contract until 2029, but Manchester United are willing to part ways with him after this season.

His value, as per Transfermarkt, has been dropping since moving to the English club and is now considered to be €30m.

Agency Gestifute, headed by super-agent Jorge Mendes, represents the South American.