Manchester United are leading Arsenal in the race to sign Atletico Madrid star Joao Felix in January, according to Marca (Thursday’s edition, page 8).

The Red Devils are eyeing a new striker during the upcoming transfer window and manager Erik ten Hag has confirmed the same in multiple interviews.

The club recently missed out on landing Cody Gakpo to Liverpool, and Marca report that they are now in pole position to land Felix ahead of the Gunners.

The Spanish outlet claim that the Red Devils are the ‘main candidates’ for the Portuguese and are ‘best placed’ to secure his services at the turn of the year.

Felix’s representative Jorge Mendes is already in talks with United over a possible winter transfer.

United must finalise loan deal for Felix in January

Felix scored for Atletico in their 2-0 win over Elche last night and following the game, manager Diego Simeone refused to rule out his departure next month.

It is quite clear that the player has fallen out with the Argentine and a move away from Atletico is a realistic possibility during the winter transfer window.

Atletico are looking for £88 million to offload Felix on a permanent transfer in January, but there are suggestions that they could also consider a loan deal.

The Spanish outfit are willing to accept around £8m for a six-month loan, provided his current wages of around £248,000-a-week are paid in full during the spell.

The overall cost for the loan deal could be £14m and United should easily afford the figure, having saved £16m in wages after Cristiano Ronaldo’s release last month.

United should have the upper hand over Arsenal with their good working relationship with Mendes. A loan deal is perfect for them to assess whether Felix can succeed in the Premier League.

Felix has not been at his best this term and it has been partly due to the lack of regular game time. He has still registered eight goal contributions in 884 minutes for Atletico.