Galatasaray 'agree' Badou Ndiaye deal amid links to Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini

Galatasaray have reportedly agreed a deal to sign midfielder Papa Alioune 'Badou' Ndiaye in a move that seems very likely to curtail fanciful speculation relating to an ambitious summer swoop for Manchester United's Marouane Fellaini.

According to Turkish outlet NTVSpor, Cimbom president Dursun Ozbek met with Osmanlıspor officials in Ankara to conclude a transfer believed to be worth €7m (£6.2m, $8.2m) after an initial €5m approach was rebuffed.

The Senegalese international, who scored seven goals in 42 appearances last season, is expected to be handed a four-year contract on wages of approximately €2.2m-a-year.

He joins a list of new recruits at the Turk Telekom Stadium that already includes Younes Belhanda, Maicon, Mariano and former Swansea City striker Bafetimbi Gomis.

Ndiaye will help fill the void in Igor Tudor's midfield left by the departure of Wesley Sneijder. The Dutch veteran cancelled his contract by mutual consent earlier this month and looks set to join Mario Balotelli at Ligue 1 outfit Nice.

Such an arrival will surely end that aforementioned pursuit of Fellaini, who it was suggested over the weekend was close to leaving Old Trafford for Istanbul. Club director Cenk Ergun claimed that Galatasaray were indeed in talks with the oft-maligned Belgian and were close to reaching an agreement that would result in them halting their chase for Ndiaye.

However, any lingering hopes that the 20-time Turkish champions may have had of pulling off that coup were firmly extinguished on Sunday (30 July) when Jose Mourinho amusingly stated that it would be a simpler task for them to prise him away from Manchester United than Fellaini.

"It's easier for Galatasaray to get me than Marouane," he said after a 3-0 pre-season friendly victory over Norwegian side Valerenga. "If they need a manager, they have a chance, but Marouane? Forget it. He is too important to me."

While certainly not a hugely popular figure with supporters, Fellaini retains the faith of his manager and featured 47 times across all competitions during Mourinho's first season at the helm. He notched the all-important goal in a tense semi-final second-leg clash with Celta Vigo in May that saw United progress through to the final of the Europa League, where they easily triumphed over Ajax in Stockholm.

The 29-year-old did travel to Oslo with his teammates over the weekend despite that intense transfer speculation and opened the scoring at Ullevaal Stadion with a deflected header.

Fellaini left the door open to a potential future move to China earlier this summer and renewed speculation over a potential exit from Manchester comes as United close in on the £40m signing of Nemanja Matic.

Matic is set to reunite with former Chelsea boss Mourinho imminently after completing a medical at Carrington on Sunday. He will follow Victor Lindelof and Romelu Lukaku as the Portuguese's third summer signing, with a long-running pursuit of Inter Milan winger Ivan Perisic still believed to be active.