United boss Ferguson slams Real Madrid again

Dec 18, 2008, 14:37 GMT

London - Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson hit out at Real Madrid again on Thursday after the Spanish club claimed they had done a deal to sign winger Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer.

The United manager was deeply unhappy at Real's conduct over the summer, when they applied consistent pressure to try to sign the freshly crowned European Footballer of the Year.

And he was clearly furious about comments from Real director Pedro Trapote suggesting the deal was done.

'Do you think I would enter into a contract with that mob?' he said to reporters after his side had reached the final of the Club World Cup with a 5-3 victory over Gamba Osaka in Japan.

'No chance. I would not sell them a virus. That is a 'no' by the way. There is no agreement whatsoever between the clubs.

'Real blame anybody but themselves,' he said.

'I said to (chief executive) David Gill a year last summer when we sold Gabriel Heinze he could bet his life this stuff will all start up around Ronaldo in January. It will happen again this January.

'We just have to ignore it. If we worry about what Real Madrid have to say we are not concentrating on our own publicity and the programme of difficult games we have got coming up.

'Sometimes they create an angry situation and sometimes I get really annoyed with them. But we know their game. I think we should play ours and ignore them,' said Ferguson.