Manchester United prepared to let Ryan Sessegnon remain at Fulham until the end of the season

Manchester United are willing to let Fulham defender Ryan Sessegnon remain at Craven Cottage until the end of the campaign as they bid to edge ahead of Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool for the vaunted left-back.

The Old Trafford hierarchy are looking for a permanent solution to their left-back position and have earmarked Sessegnon as the player to fill the void instead of Luke Shaw, who has been re-integrated in the first-team set-up by Jose Mourinho in recent weeks.

Tottenham had a £25m summer bid rejected by Fulham, who tied the 17-year-old down to a three-year contract a few months ago, but United have offered the same figure and are hoping their willingness to let the England youth international stay in west London until the end of the season will tempt the Whites into doing business with them instead of Tottenham, according to the Daily Mail.

United saw a similar proposal work to their advantage when they pilfered Wilfried Zaha from Crystal Palace in January 2013, but they will hope a prospective move for Sessegnon would prove to be more fruitful than the one for the Ivorian, which ended with him returning to Selhurst Park for around £3m.

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino was hoping to complete a £30m double deal for Sessegnon and his brother Steven, but his plan to lure the talented teenage siblings to north London is in danger of being ruined by United and Everton, who are keen admirers of Ryan's twin.

Fulham have designs on keeping both Sessegnons for the foreseeable future but are also in need of an injection of cash as they bid to find a striker capable of firing them into the Premier League. Cottagers boss Slavisa Jokanovic believes players like Sessegnon, who recently scored a hat-trick away at Sheffield Wednesday, need to remain at Fulham if they have any chance of regaining their place in England's top-flight, but the former Watford boss knows the teenager's future is not his to decide.

"Yes [I am confident], if we want to be competitive we must keep our important players," Jovanovic was quoted as saying by the Evening Standard.

"All the questions are what the value of this player is, but myself, as a coach, I prefer to stay with the more important players for the competition that is ahead of us, but on the other side I can understand the business side too.

"In this moment, I am not thinking of being without him for the season, but it is not under my control."