Manchester United have dismissed suggestions that Cristiano Ronaldo will be offered a new contract next summer.

Although reports claimed yesterday that United were preparing to give the Portugal forward a new deal that would make him the highest-paid player in the Barclays Premier League in an effort to prevent him joining Real Madrid, sources close to David Gill, the club’s chief executive, indicated that such a prospect was not on the agenda. “There are no plans to offer Cristiano a new contract next summer,” one source said.

With Ronaldo only 18½ months into a £120,000-a-week, five-year deal, it is not in United’s interests to offer the player an improved contract. Not only could they create a rod for their own back if Ronaldo rejected a new deal in the face of firm interest from Real, but there is a belief within the corridors of power at Old Trafford that it would send out the wrong message after a summer in which the Portuguese attempted to broker a move to the Spanish champions.

Assuming that Ronaldo is at United next season, the summer of 2010 is likely to be most testing for the English and European champions because only then would the 23-year-old be able to invoke a Fifa ruling that would allow him to buy out the remaining two years of his contract.

Ferguson continues war of words with Calderon If anything, there appears to be a slight battle of wills between Gill and Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager, who, if his comments over the weekend are anything to go by, seems to be angling for a new deal for Ronaldo.

More uncertain is Owen Hargreaves’s long-term future at United. Hargreaves is expected to visit a specialist in Leicester today or tomorrow about his right knee, with the possibility that the England midfield player could undergo surgery to cure the persistent tendinitis problem that has restricted him to 25 starts since he joined United from Bayern Munich in July 2007.

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