Sneijder is not coming to United – Ferguson

It was reported on Wednesday evening that Manchester United officials were in Milan to finalise a £35 million deal.

Ferguson quickly went on to rubbish these rumours at a press conference during their pre-season tour in the United States.

“I keep reading about this,” Ferguson told ESPN. “There’s absolutely nothing at all to that.

"First of all, I don’t think Inter Milan are prepared to sell him anyway, but you get conjecture and you get speculation every week in newspapers unfortunately. We have to answer these for some reason.

"Why? I don’t know, but we have to find a way or a reason without insulting a particular club or embarrassing any particular player. We just let it happen. Because there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Another factor that could scare away Manchester United is Sneijder's extremely high wage at Inter. Sneijder earns £190,000-a-week with the current World Club champions.

Sneijder has enjoyed two impressive seasons at Inter and has been repeatedly named as a likely target for a United. As Ferguson is looking to replace the retired Paul Scholes.

Inter director Marco Branca confirmed earlier in the week that the 27-year-old Dutchman was "not for sale".