Berba will stay

Ferguson keeps faith in Berbatov

Sir Alex Ferguson has dismissed any prospect of Dimitar Berbatov leaving Manchester United this summer and hinted that he will be leading their attack at the start of next season because Wayne Rooney will not be back in training early enough to play an immediate part. Ferguson's response when asked in a Canadian radio interview yesterday whether the Bulgarian would be leaving in the close season was unequivocal. "No, no, no, definitely not," he said... Alluding to the speculation linking Berbatov to Milan and Bayern Munich, Ferguson said: "The problem with a club like Manchester United is the expectation and attention is always there. There's speculation every season and some of them have you signing 100 players. You have to deal with that. There's been a lot [written] on Berbatov in terms of his future but we know he is a good player. He is a fantastic footballer and he will be with us next year."

Ian Herbert, The Independent

In the same Canadian radio interview, the boss said he's preparing to start next season without United's World Cup stars. The Daily Mail run the quotes: "The World Cup could be very draining for players as it is the biggest tournament of their lives. We will give all the players involved a 28-day rest after the last game they play in and we will start the season without them. The squad that goes on our pre-season tour will be the squad that starts the season." We're not quite sure how the paper came to its "Fergie tells stars to take August off" headline, though: by our calculations, even if anybody reaches the World Cup final on 11 July they'll be back at Carrington before the new season kicks off.