United fans concern grows over Ronaldo's future...

The latest news on the transfer grapevine is that Cristiano Ronaldo's agent has reportedly met with Real Madrid officials to discuss a £54m transfer. If this is true then many Reds will hope that the club turns down any offer from Madrid. However, given the financial mess that United are in due to the Glazer family and their debt laden takeover nothing can be taken for granted.

Manchester United must at all costs retain Ronaldo if the club has any serious ambitions about fighting it out with Chelsea for the next few seasons. If Ronaldo went he'd need to be replaced and you cannot replace the best player in the world with say Owen Hargreaves, who by the way looks like being made available this summer for around £17m.

There can be no doubting this is the sort of stunt the Glazers might try to pull, sell Ronadlo and then keep the lions share of the cash. Reds fans will be hoping that Ferguson comes out fighting his corner on this issue and if needs be states that he doesn't want Ronaldo to be sold. He has yet to do so, in truth Ferguson has become something of a lapdog where the Glazer family are concerned. He never spoke out about the takeover, which appalled my longstanding United fans and me included. He now has the chance to in part redeem himself by growing some balls and speaking out.

Ronaldo has many years ahead of him, he has clearly stated his desire to remain at United, so it appears that the only thing which will stop that from happening is the Glazer family and a lack of will from Ferguson to publicly fight his own corner. The manager has no problem about making public statements when it suits. It's all well and good Fergie saying Ronaldo is the best player in the world, but we the fans would much rather hear Fergie saying 'he is going nowhere' and not has he has said recently 'it will be up to the Glazer's'.

Ronaldo isn't heading over the hill, he's in his early 20s, which is why he needs to be retained. This is not the same as selling Beckham, who was heading towards 30 when he went, again this is why Ronaldo must stay at all costs.

Also remember that United have barely spent a net penny on transfers under the Glazer regime, last season we off-loaded Ruud Van Nistelrooy and brought in Carrick but according to reports the club actually made a net profit of some £4m. So much for the promise of spending £20m per season on transfers.

Selling Ronaldo might appear to make good business sense, but selling your star player who is irreplacable is not. Manchester United have been successful by continually investing in the team and not by selling our best players, the latter will lead to less success on the pitch and ultimately less revenues off it.

The Glazer family may well remain silent but they will be judged by their actions, so far Ferguson has worked near miracles for the Glazer's, but it could well all unravel if the club sells Ronaldo. IF that happens United and its supporters will have been betrayed by the Glazer family and the manager if he does not speak out and is seen to be publicly fighting to retain the best player in the world.