Ferguson says Man United not offering Ronaldo new deal

Sir Alex Ferguson has dismissed suggestions that Manchester United are close to offering Cristiano Ronaldo a new contract by insisting that the European champions are ‘happy’ with the remaining length of the player’s current deal.

With Real Madrid expected to renew efforts to sign Ronaldo next year, it is likely that United will open talks over a new deal with the Portuguese forward at the end of the season.

At that stage, he will have three years left to run on his 120,000-pound-a-week deal, but Ferguson admitted recently that the summer of 2009 will be a ‘key’ stage of Ronaldo’s contract.

Yet despite Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, being spotted at Old Trafford last week, Ferguson insists that the player’s current deal does not require urgent renewal.

Ferguson said: “I don’t know what other clubs pay their players, but he (Ronaldo) is very well paid by us and quite rightly.

“He deserves to be paid tremendous amounts. All the players that are well paid deserve it because they are great players.

“But at the moment, he has three-and-a-half years left on his contract and we are happy with that.”

Mendes, who also looks after the affairs of Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho, manages four players at Old Trafford.

And Ferguson claimed that his visit is just as likely to have concerned those players as much as Ronaldo.

He said: “There is nothing I can tell you about that because I didn’t even know Jorge was over.

“He comes across quite a lot to see Anderson, Nani, Ronaldo and Manucho to sort out a lot of things — maybe their living accommodation or commercial issues.”