Manchester United blog..

Oliver Kay of The Times newspaper claims that Gabriel Heinze could be set to invoke a new FIFA rule this June which would allow him to leave the club after 'buying out' his contract, in reality his new club would do the buying of course. Heinze has become frustrated at his lack of opportunities this season and United have been linked to another left sided defender in Gareth Bale. The Argentine star has admitted that AC Milan are interested in him.

The new FIFA ruling stipulates that a contract ceases to be protected after a period of three years if the player was under 28 when he signed. A number of stars could take advantage of the ruling including John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho and Frank Lampard all of Chelsea, Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia of Liverpool and Gilberto Silva of Arsenal. Under the terms of the regulations United would recoup around £6m for Heinze as he still has two years to run on his contract.

News of the move has surprised Fergie as he wasn't even aware of the impending exit and the new ruling, which sums up how poorly the United regime is on important rulings of this nature - the finger is most definitely not on the pulse. On hearing about this Fergie said: 'I went diving for my file, I was sure this wasn't right'. But apparently it is right...

While not being a great footballer, Heinze is a great defender and many say he's better at centre-back rather than a full-back, but he's never been given the chance to shine in that position, if he goes he'll get a great send-off from the fans who love him. £6m is a fair price too.