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That’s according to Duncan Castles, who says Spurs are aware of a clause in Fernandes’ contract that forces Sporting to offer the player compensation if they reject a bid of at least £32m for him.

The Portugal international is running out of time to seal a move to the Premier League, with the English transfer window due to close on August 8.

Manchester United were initially favourites to prise Fernandes away from Sporting, with reports suggesting they had identified him as a potential replacement for wantaway star Paul Pogba, but Spurs now look to be in pole position to sign the 24-year-old.

And Castles believes the north London club have put Sporting under pressure with their £41m offer.

READ MORE: Tottenham only looking at signing one of Fernandes or Giovani Lo Celso

“The update which we had yesterday was that Tottenham had travelled to Lisbon to speak to Sporting about the transfer of Fernandes,” he said on Reach Plc’s Transfer Window podcast.

“A two-man team led by Matthew Collecott, who’s the head of operations and finance at Tottenham and is involved in a lot of the transfers there for obvious reasons.

“What I understand is that they have made an offer of €45m [£41m] for the player, which is very Daniel-Levy like, because as we’ve told you on the podcast some time ago Fernandes has a side clause in his deal that he signed last summer which allows him, if Sporting do not accept an offer of €35m [£32m] or more, to receive €5m [£4.5m] from Sporting in compensation.

“So Tottenham have basically targeted that figure and moved a little bit above it and forced Sporting’s hand in the sense that they now have to compensate Bruno if they don’t sell a player who they have been planning to sell all summer, who they’ve allowed the agent of to actively market around Europe and bring a big transfer fee in, who their president has said he will not sell for less than €62m [£57m] euros in public to the fans.

READ MORE: Man Utd handed Fernandes transfer boost by what Tottenham told Sporting during talks

(Image: GETTY)

(Image: GETTY) (Image: GETTY)

“So the pressure I think is on Sporting now to negotiate a deal with Tottenham, with Tottenham confident that they’re in a strong position in the sense that they know Sporting want to sell, they know the player wanted to leave and get an upgrade on his pay package, they know they’ve put Sporting in a difficult position in terms of that €5m.

“I’m told that there were plans to meet again [on Friday] for further discussions on that transfer to see if they can get closer to an agreement.”

According to Portuguese newspaper O Jogo, Fernandes has told Tottenham he would like to join them over United this summer.

The player has not tried to force his way out of Sporting, but with Spurs now tabling an official offer he hopes a deal can be wrapped up before next week’s deadline.

READ MORE: Real Madrid told to forget about signing Christian Eriksen this summer and focus on ‘urgent’ business

(Image: GETTY)

Starsport understand United will only go after Fernandes if Pogba decides to leave for Real Madrid.

The Frenchman’s agent Mino Raiola recently revealed that ‘everyone knows the willingness of Paul to move on’ amid reported interest from Real boss Zinedine Zidane.

However, talk of Pogba moving to the Bernabeu has gone quiet in recent weeks and Spurs now look set to sign the man they have identified as his potential replacement.

The Transfer Window podcast is available to download on iTunes, or you can listen to it on Acast.