Atletico Madrid's Diego Costa (L) and Barcelona's Jordi Alba fight for the ball during their Spanish first division soccer match at Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid January 11, 2014.
Atletico Madrid's Diego Costa (L) and Barcelona's Jordi Alba fight for the ball during a Spanish first division match   Reuters

Manchester United have suffered a blow in their pursuit of Barcelona defender Jordi Alba after Catalan press have branded the player 'non-transferable'.

According to Mundo Deportivo, the Catalan club have ruled out the possibility of the player leaving the Camp Nou during the summer transfer window.

New Red Devils boss Louis van Gaal was reportedly considering a move for Alba as an alternative to his first-choice Luke Shaw, with reports in Spain claiming that United were set to offer more than £25m to secure the Spanish international left-back.

Nevertheless, the BBC reported that the Premier League giants are closer to completing a deal for Shaw, after the youngster told Southampton he wanted to move to Old Trafford this summer.

After failing in his quest to bring the player to United for next season, Van Gaal is still monitoring another summer target Barca striker Alexis Sanchez and is ready to launch a massive bid for the Chilean. Reports in Spain claim he is going to be sacrificed by Barcelona as part of the Catalans' huge summer overhaul to fund moves for new additions.

Arsenal, Liverpool and especially Juventus have been linked with the Chilean international recently while Marca reported that United have also joined the race to secure his services.

This is the second blow United after Borussia Dortmund denied rumours of Van Gaal's priority target Marco Reus' departure from the Signal Iduna Park next season – this came after Catalan newspaper Sport claimed Barcelona had already reached a €35m (£28m) agreement with Reus – although they still had to negotiate with Dortmund.

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