Sao Paulo stand firm over Lucas price

Sao Paulo believe Manchester United will pay their asking price for Lucas Moura while the player maintains he does not want to leave.

The Brazilian club have rejected United's £25.6million offer for the 19-year-old winger and, although they won't say it, expect the deposed Premier League champions to find up to £5million more before the end of the Olympics - where Lucas is set to star for the Gold Medal favourites. United are publicly standing firm and refusing to increase their bid but pressure from the press and fans is building while Sir Alex Ferguson wanted it all tied up before the Olympic Games which begin this week. And while Lucas himself remains apparently lukewarm about the prospect of moving to Manchester, Sao Paulo have the power to demand more from a club who the world knows remain the most profitable in football with a scheduled IPO in New York expected to raise £150million for the owners. Lucas agent' Wagner Ribeiro has flown to England with a mandate to "keep negotiating" with Old Trafford chief executive David Gill. "The player is my boss, I always talk to him," Ribeiro told Radio Globo. "He determines what I do, my objectives. If he says that he doesn't want to leave Sao Paulo, I won't even listen to the offer. "He told me to keep negotiating when I talked about Manchester United's interest. "It's a great offer. If it was an irrecusable one, he would leave, but he is happy at Sao Paulo too. If he stays there, life goes on."