text: Dani Alves posted a picture of himself with his trousers down on his Instagram account on Thursday. With one message coming out of the player’s camp and a very different one emerging from the Nou Camp it’s difficult to know who feels they have been left exposed by who. We take a look at the contract wrangle and ask: could he really end up at Manchester United? Dani Alves, out of contract at the end of the campaign, is pictured training for Barcelona on Friday . His contract runs out on June 30 why has it come to this? Barcelona had never planned to keep Alves beyond this season. He’s served them brilliantly but he will be 32 next month and on  £85,000-a-week he is one of their top earning defenders along with Gerard Pique. What they were not counting on is their own incompetence in finding a replacement for him and the FIFA transfer ban that stops them buying anyone this summer. So now they want him to stay? They do, but very much on their terms. The club are letting it be known they have offered him a two-year deal with an option of a third year depending on the number of games played in the second year. Alves’ camp say it’s actually a one-year deal to be renewed for a second year, and then a third year, only if he plays a certain number of matches. The new contract also comes with incentives. If he wins things then he will end up earning the same money but his basic earnings before bonuses would drop. Barcelona defender Alves has been sounded out by Manchester United over a move to Old Trafford . And there are other clubs who will gladly take him? After weeks of rumours that the suitors were queuing around the Nou Camp to sign him up it now seems that one big club has offered him a three-year deal with none of the strings, sub-clauses and trap-doors as the Barca deal. And that club is Manchester United? United are the prime suspects with PSG out of the running. But Alves' camp say now is not the time to name the club. You sound doubtful… . Only in as much as if Manchester United had really offered him a three-year deal would he still be haggling with Barcelona? Surely a Premier League swansong at Old Trafford is the perfect way to round off what has been a remarkable career with the Spanish giants – winning four leagues, three cups and two Champions League titles. Perhaps he just really wants to stay in Barcelona? The children he has with ex-wife Dinorah Santa Ana (who is now his agent) live in the city and after 13 years in Spain he is reluctant to leave. He is hoping Barcelona, desperate because they can't sign players, make him a better offer. Dinorah Santa Ana, Alves ex-wife and now his agent, addressed the media earlier this week . But if he does end up at United will he be a success? It’s easy to look at the gold shoes, the denim waistcoats and the polka dot ties and just see an eccentric extrovert who plays football in his part-time. That does a tremendous injustice to easily the most gifted and successful right-back of his generation. He remains super-fit and if there is slightly less energy to get up and down the pitch as there once was perhaps that wouldn’t be a bad thing – Louis van Gaal is hardly going to want him flying forward Barcelona style at every possibility. He remains very watchable and has a tenacity and speed of recovery that means he never has been the defensive liability some have depicted. The Brazil international is hopeful Barcelona make him an improved offer so he can stay at the Nou Camp . You make it sound as though Barcelona would be foolish to let him leave... In view of the fact that if they allow him to walk away they will end up having to play Douglas at right back then that may well be the case. The strange summer signing from Sao Paolo who cost £4m and has started one game looks completely out of his depth. Put it this way – the manager Luis Enrique wants Alves to stay.
target: Dani Alves is out of contract at Barcelona at the end of the season .
  Manchester United are interested in bringing the Brazilian to Old Trafford .
  They are believed to have offered a three-year contract to the defender .
  Barcelona are however, now keen to keep hold of the 32-year-old star .
  READ: Agent confirms Dani Alves has rejected club's final contract offer .
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