Nice president Jean-Pierre has revealed Manchester United want a sizeable fee for Memphis Depay.

The Ligue 1 club have admitted defeat in the chase for the forward as Jose Mourinho is asking for a fee beyond their reach.

Rivere indicated that he had been in contact with the Red Devils and knew exactly what United were after for the flop.

While United have been unable to shift him as of yet, the Nice chief also revealed a host of clubs were interested in the 21-year-old.

Rivere told RMC: “We looked at him, like a lot of clubs have, but it is extremely complicated.

“It is a situation that is out of our financial reach. You have a club that bought him for a certain amount, that wants to sell him.

“When we looked at Depay, it was in another way, which is not possible today.

“He was bought very expensively by Manchester United, they want to possibly sell him and we cannot compete in this sort of situation.”

Depay signed for United in the summer of 2015 from PSV Eindhoven for £25m.

United paid PSV Eindhoven an initial £26.3million for Memphis 18 months ago but his overall transfer fee could have totalled £31m.

Memphis has made just one start for United this season and has not featured in the last nine matchday squads, with Mourinho unprepared to risk an injury which could jeopardise Memphis’ protracted transfer.

“He was not playing last season. It was not that last season he was playing phenomenally and this season he is not playing at all. That’s not the situation,” Mourinho said.