Manchester United close to signing Benfica's £29.3million Argentina playmaker Nicolás Gaitán

Gaitán, who can play as an attacking midfielder or left-sided forward, impressed against Manchester United during Benfica’s Champions League group stage encounters with Sir Alex Ferguson’s team earlier this season, and his arrival at Old Trafford next summer would help fill the void left by Paul Scholes’s retirement last May.

As revealed by Telegraph Sport in October, United’s European scouting team has monitored the 23-year-old’s performances in recent months, with the player under detailed scrutiny during last month’s games against Naval and Sporting Lisbon, and the club moved to head off growing interest in Gaitán from Inter Milan and Paris Saint-Germain by opening negotiations with Benfica in late November.

With Gaitán’s former club, Boca Juniors, entitled to 20 per cent of any transfer fee Benfica receive, the Portuguese club had been holding out for the player’s full £38m release clause, written into his renegotiated contract two months ago. United made it clear they would not meet that figure, and an outline agreement is now in place for a move next June.

Despite United’s mounting injury crisis, which has seen Darren Fletcher join cruciate ligament victim Nemanja Vidic in missing the rest of the season with a chronic bowel condition, Ferguson has conceded Benfica will not sell Gaitán in January.

United, who are also monitoring Benfica midfielder Javi Garcia, are prepared to wait until the summer for Gaitán, however, with Ferguson confident that his squad remains strong enough to compete for the title.

Long-term absentees Tom Cleverley and Anderson are progressing well after ankle and knee injuries respectively and both could return to contention early in the new year.