City can't be serious about RM829m Ronaldo bid

LONDON: Manchester United chief executive David Gill said he would treat suggestions that Manchester City could table a STG135 million (RM829 million) bid for Cristiano Ronaldo "with a pinch of salt".
Ronaldo heads into the new English Premier league season still being closely followed by Real Madrid, who tried but failed during the summer to secure the Portuguese international's signature.

But now cross-city rivals Manchester City have entered the fray.

Sulaiman Al-Fahim, the billionaire businessman at the centre of the club's takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group, said he wants to build a "dream team" which can compete in the Champions League within the coming three years.

And he added they could be willing to make a world record bid of STG135 million for the United star.
Gill, speaking to BBC radio's Five Live show yesterday, admitted that any club would get excited about such a sizeable bid for one player.

But, while highlighting the fact that United manager Alex Ferguson was the subject of complaints to the Premier League during his pursuit of new signing Dimitar Berbatov, Gill said he needed convincing about the authenticity of City's ambitions.

"It was an interesting comment, I think it's a fan's-type comment," said Gill.

"It's interesting when Alex Ferguson mentioned the Dimitar Berbatov signing in advance that complaints were made to the Premier League.

"He (Sulaiman) mentioned (Fernando) Torres and (Cesc) Fabregas in the same article so I think we will treat that with a pinch of salt.

"I have never met the gentleman. That is a fantastic amount of money and would turn the industry upside down so I can't believe he is serious at those sorts of levels.

"Ultimately we would discuss any offer with Alex and the owners, as that sort of money is very large for one person. But we are not in the market to sell our best players."

Gill also insisted the club stayed "entirely within the rules" during their pursuit of Berbatov.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has called for a change in transfer rules, and initially complained to the Premier League about United's approach for the player.

Gill, however, has rejected allegations that United did anything wrong.

He added: "We are very comfortable with how the whole thing went. There were allegations made, we are comfortable that how we approached it was entirely correct and within the rules."

Gill also confirmed they would be looking to finalise a permanent deal for Argentina striker Carlos Tevez.

He said: "One other bit of business we will do is finalise the Carlos Tevez deal and then the composition of the squad will be first class.