Saturday 25 June 2011

Manchester United keen to hold onto Nani

Michael Carrick and Nani Manchester United will not be offloading Nani following Ashley Young's £17million arrival at Old Trafford.

With Young signing a five-year contract with United on Friday, it has been suggested Nani's time at the club is coming to an end.

Although the Portugal winger claimed more assists than anyone else in the Premier League last term, and was named United's players' player of the year, the return of Antonio Valencia from injury in March reduced his involvement.

Nani then failed to make Sir Alex Ferguson's starting line-up for last month's Champions League final defeat to Barcelona, leading to fresh speculation about his future.

If he indicated a desire to leave United in the wake of Young's arrival from Aston Villa, there would be huge interest across Europe.

However, whilst the 24-year-old's thoughts on the situation have not been aired, it is now understood United's stance to be of a club currently building a squad, a process that does not involve allowing what they regard as key men to leave.

There will be casualties, and it is hard to see Sunderland targets Darron Gibson and Wes Brown remaining beyond the end of August.

When his squad returns to training at the start of next month though, Sir Alex Ferguson will be assuring Nani of his position in the Scot's plans for the future, and attempt to meet the challenge Barcelona set with their devastating performance at Wembley.

Certainly, Ferguson has been the most active of the big-name managers so far this summer and his spending will go beyond £50million once the deal for Atletico Madrid keeper David de Gea is completed.

De Gea will be part of the Spain side that attempts to secure the European Under-21 Championships by beating Switzerland on Saturday evening, after which it is expected the remaining loose ends of his transfer will be tied up.

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