SOOCCER:ALEX FERGUSON has delivered a seemingly terminal blow to Cristiano Ronaldo's hopes of a summer transfer to Real Madrid by telling the Portuguese forward, in a face-to-face meeting in Portugal, that he will still be a Manchester United player next season.
Having agitated for a move to the Spanish champions since the end of last season, Ronaldo, currently recovering from ankle surgery, had hoped to break Ferguson's resistance and secure a transfer to the Bernabeu.
However, the United manager insisted in Cape Town yesterday that the "very amicable" meeting with Ronaldo ended with the player being made fully aware that he will remain at Old Trafford beyond the closure of the transfer window on August 31st.
Ferguson said: "I went out to see Cristiano in Portugal earlier this week. It was very amicable and there were no problems, so therefore we carry on. There is no problem for Manchester United or the manager.
"What I said to Cristiano will remain private, but the meeting went well. We both made our points of view about where we stand and where the player stands. And I can say that he will be a Manchester United player next summer. That's our stance, he won't be sold.
"It's not a difficult position for us. I don't know where people get this thing from. I was on my holiday and I was not going to interrupt my holiday - believe me - for the simple reason that the boy is under contract. The strength and the rights are with Manchester United."
Although Ronaldo might yet muddy the waters once more by rejecting Ferguson's claims, the player himself will be out until early October as a result of the ankle surgery he underwent two weeks ago.
Ferguson said: "He is on crutches for the first four weeks and will be in rehabilitation for the next four weeks. Then the following four weeks he will be back into football training. The time mapped out is three months and we won't bring him back a day earlier than that."
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has accused Ferguson of "sheer arrogance" and "hypocrisy" over his public pursuit of striker Dimitar Berbatov.
Spurs have made a complaint to the Premier League over United's bid to lure Berbatov and Liverpool's attempts to sign Robbie Keane, branding the conduct of both clubs "disgraceful" and claiming they have been "systematically been working to prise the players away from us".
Ferguson confirmed yesterday that United have made a bid for Berbatov and that he eventually expects the deal to go through.
Tottenham have also been angered by the comments of Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, who went public last week by revealing Republic of Ireland captain Keane as a target for the Anfield club.
Levy issued the following statement: "Today's public comments by Manchester United's manager, announcing that he has made an offer for Dimitar and is confident that the deal will go through with time working in their favour, is a blatant example of sheer arrogance and interference with one of our players.
"It is also probably one of the worst offences by any manager in the Premier League to date and is unbelievably hypocritical given his recent comments in respect of Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid. This comes after a series of events, dating back to last summer, which have shown Manchester United to be in breach of Premier League rules.
"As a result, we have today made an official complaint to the Premier League about the conduct of Manchester United. Benitez made similar comments in respect of Robbie recently and we made an official complaint to the Premier League about the conduct of Liverpool earlier this week.
"The behaviour of both clubs has been disgraceful. We told both clubs very early on that we had no interest in selling Robbie or Dimitar, respectively, and that they should refrain from pursuing the player.
"Both clubs arrogantly chose to ignore this request and we now have evidence that both clubs have systematically been working to prise the players away from us, outside of Premier League rules of conduct."
Guardian Service
