I’m not out to unsettle Benzema, says Fergie

MANCHESTER UNITED manager Alex Ferguson has dismissed claims that he has attempted to unsettle the Lyon striker Karim Benzema.

United face the Ligue 1 side in the second leg of their Champions League clash at Old Trafford next week, with the tie finely-poised at 1-1.

Ferguson has been linked with Benzema for several months and spoke highly of the young forward in the build-up to last week’s game in France, comments which Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas interpreted as an attempt to “destabilise” the 20-year-old.

Speculation about the issue will continue to mount ahead of next week’s game.

But Ferguson has insisted he has done nothing wrong and the Scot said: “When you’re asked the question, you give your honest opinion and I said that Juninho is a good player, Jeremy Toulalan is a good player and Hatem Ben Arfa is a good player. It’s a bit of mischief I think.”

Real Madrid are also interested in snapping up Benzema, even if the Spanish champions know the young talent will be difficult to prise away.

Spanish daily Marca reported back in October that the Spaniards had already expressed an interest for the 20-year-old. According to the journal, Real see the youngster as the long-term successor to Dutch forward Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

But Real “are going to come up against a serious problem. Lyon want to extend his contract to 2014 and underpin it with an ‘anti-Madrid’ clause (which would prevent him going for less than) around €100 million,” according to Marca.