Erik ten Hag sends hands off transfer warning to Liverpool in Man Utd battle

Erik ten Hag insists is despite selling him to Benfica during the summer.

The 21-year-old after it exercised the buy option in his loan contract following his January arrival, which ensured he would sign permanently should he start 50 per cent of the club's remaining games during the 2023-24 campaign.

As it happened, Carreras featured 16 times for Benfica in the second half of last season, scoring once and assisting once, ahead of signing a five-year contract until 2029 this summer.

Since then, the Spain Under-21 international has made 10 appearances in all competitions for the Lisbon-based outfit at left-back, continuing to impress as he helped keep clean sheets in four of those games - including the 4-0 rout over Atletico Madrid in the earlier this month.

As a result of his performances, he's attracted the attention of a number of Europe's biggest clubs, , yet Man United continue to hold the biggest influence over his future. According to , the ball is in his side's court.

“We are monitoring Alvaro Carreras' progress at Benfica, we have a buy back clause," he told . “We loaned him to Preston, Granada, he didn't play much there… and we had the opportunity to sell him. But we have a buy-back clause which allows us to control the situation."

According to Spanish outlet , Liverpool is looking for a long-term replacement for , who turned 30 earlier this year, and Carreras is under consideration.

However, the Reds will have to "dig deep" to persuade the Portuguese club to sell the youngster, even if he is only currently valued at $8.6m (£6.7m/€8m) on and is largely unproven.

Nonetheless, Carreras' previous experience in English football is said to appeal to Liverpool, despite failing to make a single appearance for United's first team. However, he did feature 42 times for Preston during the 2022-23 season, where he won the club's Young Player of the Year Award.