Tiresome media persist with Ronaldo exit claims ...

It has been a bad few days for United supporters following the team's defeat in the Champions League final on Wednesday in Rome. It is bad enough losing, but now we are going to have to put up with another summer of transfer speculation surrounding Ronaldo.

In the wake of what was a bad night for the champions, it comes as no surprise that United's many enemies in the mainstream media have been attempting to destabilise the club by stirring up tensions between Fergie and Ronaldo.

In his post-match interview that followed the defeat in Rome, Ronaldo was honest in his assessment that United had played poorly and they'd made mistakes, he was also gracious in defeat when admitting Barcelona deserved to win. However, the media have been spinning for all their questionable worth by trying to create friction between manager and star player.

On the subject of next season, the Portuguese forward has on several occasions recently, stated categorically that his immediate future lies with Manchester United, despite this, the media have continued to speculate that Ronaldo will join Real Madrid this summer.

The latest news.... if that is a good word for it... surrounding the world player of the year, comes to us courtesy of the Guardian, the basis of this laughingly labelled "exclusive" is that as yet un-elected president Florentino Pérez will this summer launch a "spectacular project" that will include the signings of Ronaldo, Kaka and Franck Ribery.

Real Madrid have an amazing record where big name signings are concerned and they are still probably the biggest club in the world, despite what we United fans may think, so we cannot totally rule out that Ronaldo could join Madrid, but it is question of when that might be, next season seems highly unlikely given Ronaldo's recent comments on this subject.

The Guardian has also republished claims that there exists what has been described as "a legally binding document" for Ronaldo to sign for Madrid. The agreement in question was supposedly agreed between the disgraced former president Ramon Calderon and the Jorge Mendes, Ronaldo's agent. This particular story goes back to last summer and of course Calderon was eventually forced to quit over an alleged election rigging scandal.

Personally, I don't see how any document could ever be legally binding when Ronaldo remains under contract to Manchester United. Calderon and Mendes could well have agreed to do business, but that would have been on the understanding that United agreed to a transfer of the player, and while Fergie is in charge I honestly do not see that happening.

This so called legally binding agreement argument holds little water, it has if anything only served to cloud the issue because United hold all the aces. What's more, neither Calderon or Real Madrid were never going to sue Mendes and risk potentially losing out on signing Ronaldo at some point in the future.