United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has played down media speculation linking the Reds with Brazilian teenager Douglas Costa.

Costa, an 18-year-old midfielder at Gremio who’s been dubbed “the new Ronaldinho”, was reported to have caught the eye of the English and European champions. Some papers even claimed the Reds had tabled a multi-million-pound bid.

At Friday’s press conference, Sir Alex confirmed United actively scout in Brazil, but warned not everything reported in the media is true.

“We’ve invested in two full-time scouts in Brazil and it’s a country that produces fantastic footballers,” Sir Alex said.

“Brazilians can often play in big games all the time and they have an energy and enthusiasm to play football.

“You have to follow the trends in football. Once upon a time in England the north-east was a great hunting ground for scouts. It goes in cycles.

“We had a spell with good local players at Manchester United in 1993. Not so long it was France, and there are still some fantastic young players coming out of that country. You have to keep your eyes open.

“But when you see names it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re actually going to sign someone. People see our scouts at games and jump to inclusions – they think, ‘Manchester United are here: they must be watching such and such a player’. Just because we watch them doesn’t mean we’re going to sign them.”

Manchester United are ready to axe Argentine starlet Carlos Tevez in favour of a striker that can score at least 20 goals a season.

Argentina international Tevez is currently on a two-year-long loan at Old Trafford, and Sir Alex Ferguson has the option of buying him at the end of that loan, next summer.

The only problem is that Tevez will cost Man Utd around £34m, and it has been reported that Ferguson is not willing to meet that price tag set by the player's owner Kia Joorabchian.

This could mean that Ferguson is ready to axe Tevez and find himself a striker that can score 20 plus goals a season. The rumoured, big-name candidates are David Villa, Karim Benzema and Klaas Jan Huntelaar.

David Villa has just signed a new contract at Valencia and is unlikely to move anytime soon, but Ferguson is reportedly keen on the 26-year-old Spanish star. The player claimed during the summer that he was a big fan of Arsenal and said he would be happy to play with them, and Liverpool apparently made an approach towards him in the summer, but Valencia repelled them and Villa decided to extend his stay at the Mestalla.

Klaas Jan Huntelaar is reportedly in negotiations to sign a new deal with his current club Ajax, and looks unlikely to leave, and Karim Benzema of Lyon has spoken of his desire to stay at Lyon and win a European title with the French champions.

This means that Man United's search for an out and out striker continues and Tevez could well be the one to suffer if they do find their man.

Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho told reporters after his side's 4-0 trouncing of Roma that he wasn't finished with England yet, and that he fully intended to return to the league that he once won with Chelsea...

The outspoken manager was in incredibly high spirits after his nerazzurri thrashed Roma 4-0 on their own patch to climb to the top of Serie A on Sunday evening.

However, among his post-match thoughts was his plans to one day return to the Premier League.

The former Chelsea boss said, "I feel good at Inter now, but one day I will return to train a Premiership team. I love Inter and this is a great challenge, but after this I will come back to the Premiership."

He gave no deadline as to when he'd pack up his bags in Milan and head back to the white cliffs of Dover, but he was unequivocal about this being his eventual plan.

Indeed, he even went on to turn down the prospect of taking over his own country's national team, or a side based in Portugal's nearest rivals, Spain.

"I heard that some people wanted to go to Spain or to the Portugal national team, but I love the English and England," he added.

Whether or not this means that he is prepared to take the England national team job, though, remains to be seen.

Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed he met Roman Abramovich in the summer, but insists it was not to discuss the Chelsea job. AC Milan coach Ancelotti was strongly linked with the Stamford Bridge post following Avram Grant's end-of-season departure. Reports had suggested that Chelsea had made an approach to speak to Ancelotti, who has spent seven years in charge at the San Siro. Former Italy international Ancelotti has revealed he did meet up with Chelsea owner Abramovich to talk about football matters during the close-season. Informal However, Ancelotti says he was not negotiating a deal with the Blues and that Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani was fully aware of the situation. "It's true, me and Abramovich met," Ancelotti told Sky Italia. "He wanted to understand what my philosophy was. "But it was immediately made clear that I had a contract with Milan and that I wanted to stay at Milan. "It was an informal talk, and my club knew of the meeting because Galliani is aware of everything."

Ryan Giggs will be used as a deep-lying striker or a central midfielder this season as Sir Alex Ferguson tries to best utilise the Welshman’s energies.

The sight of United’s no.11 tearing up and down the flanks at Old Trafford will, but for very few occasions, now be confined to memory.

The 34-year-old played in a more central role in the Reds' 3-1 win over Middlesbrough on Tuesday, and fans can get used to seeing Giggs perform there much more frequently this term.

“He’s been fantastic this season, absolutely brilliant,” beams Sir Alex. “But what we have to do is manage him. He is looking absolutely brilliant now, but we also want to have him nice and fresh at the end of the season. He can decide games for you, that’s the great quality he has.

“I see his role as a central player, where we played him the other night,” the boss adds. “The days of trampling up and down that touchline for Ryan, at 34 years of age, are gone. He can maybe do it occasionally, but I think that is beyond him now.”

Managing the players within his ample squad is arguably the toughest task facing Sir Alex this season. The sheer volume of talent at his fingertips makes the selection process potentially more testing than it has ever been before. But Sir Alex insists he is content to disappoint players every now and again for the sake of the team, and also the players themselves.

“When you have got a squad of players and everyone is fit, you have a problem,” he said. “You have a problem picking the substitutions, never mind the first eleven. It’s always the case that if you want to win something – and we always want to win something – you need to have a strong squad. That has paid dividends for this club. Other clubs have the same mentality now.”

The changing face of the modern game doesn’t soften the blow on a Saturday when Sir Alex informs a clutch of internationals that they have not made his 18-man matchday squad.

“The players understand it, but that doesn’t mean to say they accept it,” he says. “Some players realise the mechanics of the situation. But when it’s your turn to sit out, you don’t like it.

“That’s OK with me, I don’t mind that. It tells me that they all want to play. I’d rather that than some player saying, ‘It’s a tough game, I don’t fancy it today’. We don’t have players like that, and you never want players that are quite happy sitting on the bench

Ryan Giggs will be used as a deep-lying striker or a central midfielder this season as Sir Alex Ferguson tries to best utilise the Welshman’s energies.

The sight of United’s no.11 tearing up and down the flanks at Old Trafford will, but for very few occasions, now be confined to memory.

The 34-year-old played in a more central role in the Reds' 3-1 win over Middlesbrough on Tuesday, and fans can get used to seeing Giggs perform there much more frequently this term.

“He’s been fantastic this season, absolutely brilliant,” beams Sir Alex. “But what we have to do is manage him. He is looking absolutely brilliant now, but we also want to have him nice and fresh at the end of the season. He can decide games for you, that’s the great quality he has.

“I see his role as a central player, where we played him the other night,” the boss adds. “The days of trampling up and down that touchline for Ryan, at 34 years of age, are gone. He can maybe do it occasionally, but I think that is beyond him now.”

Managing the players within his ample squad is arguably the toughest task facing Sir Alex this season. The sheer volume of talent at his fingertips makes the selection process potentially more testing than it has ever been before. But Sir Alex insists he is content to disappoint players every now and again for the sake of the team, and also the players themselves.

“When you have got a squad of players and everyone is fit, you have a problem,” he said. “You have a problem picking the substitutions, never mind the first eleven. It’s always the case that if you want to win something – and we always want to win something – you need to have a strong squad. That has paid dividends for this club. Other clubs have the same mentality now.”

The changing face of the modern game doesn’t soften the blow on a Saturday when Sir Alex informs a clutch of internationals that they have not made his 18-man matchday squad.

“The players understand it, but that doesn’t mean to say they accept it,” he says. “Some players realise the mechanics of the situation. But when it’s your turn to sit out, you don’t like it.

“That’s OK with me, I don’t mind that. It tells me that they all want to play. I’d rather that than some player saying, ‘It’s a tough game, I don’t fancy it today’. We don’t have players like that, and you never want players that are quite happy sitting on the bench