Aberdeen rule out Fergie bid

Aberdeen have ruled out any possible bid to lure Sir Alex Ferguson back to Pittodrie.

The Manchester United manager was the subject of a reported attempt to take him back to the Scottish Premier League club where he enjoyed major success during the 1980s.

But the Dons insist that there are no plans to prise Ferguson away from Old Trafford after his retirement at the end of next season.

"The Board of Aberdeen wishes to make it clear that it has had no discussions whatsoever with Sir Alex regarding either his engagement in the management of the club or of his becoming an investor in Aberdeen Football Club plc," a club spokesman said.

"Sir Alex obviously still has many friends at Pittodrie and, because of this and the fact he attended our game against Hearts yesterday, this type of unfounded speculation is not entirely surprising.

"However, all this is doing is creating false hopes in the minds of our supporters, which is disappointing."

Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon recently revealed that Ferguson will remain at Old Trafford after his retirement from management.

"Sir Alex has been our most successful manager. We recognise that and our first wish would be for him to continue but he's made a decision that after the age of 60, he wants to move away from management," Kenyon told BBC Radio Five Sportsweek recently.

"So we've moved onto stage two, which is about ensuring that he will continue with Manchester United in some role.

"We're talking about that with him and we're a long way down the road.

"To be fair, we've all agreed that the one thing Sir Alex has made clear is that he doesn't want to manage anywhere else and he wants to ensure that his role at United does not conflict with a new manager coming in.

"It's fair to say that it won't be on the football side in any way, shape or form. It will be much more of an ambassadorial role for Manchester United.

"It's too early to speculate on who the next manager will be or where he might come from.

"The intention has been to clarify Sir Alex's position and making sure our squad is the right size and calibre to continue the success."