Did you not see the example I gave of Gakpo?
Clubs hold talks with players they're interested in (and their management) all the time aside from contract negotiations.
A more high profile example would be Mbappe. Real Madrid were in contact a long time before there was a contract negotiation.
The fact is there is no credible journo claiming we're at an advanced stage with Timber. The only contract negotiation we know of is the one between Ajax and Timber.
I didn't quote Mazhar's post for his opinion. I quoted him for the summary of the article, which you have clearly haven't read.
You don't seem to get my point. I concede my mistake in the negotiation part, but what is implied is the fact that Timber is interested in joining United otherwise his reps wouldn't fly over in the first place. Just as Mbappe was interested in joining Madrid and Gakpo was in joining Liverpool, that neither move happened doesn't mean the players didn't listen to offers from these clubs.
No one said it was at an advanced stage, people just assumed if the player is interested and the club is interested combined with Ajax usually not standing in the way of their players who intend to move on, that the move should be an easy one. You on the other hand constantly implied Timber isn't interested and his likely signing was some pipedream. Reputable Dutch journos did report is interest in joining United too and as I mentioned earlier Timber himself implied he was open to switching clubs in a recent interview.
And I did read the article when it was first posted on here but forgot the exact wordings when replying to you earlier, knew for sure you did not post the part about his representatives coming to London.
At least you've changed your stance now to no credible report about advanced negotiation which i agree with, but that was never my contention.