United set Ronaldinho deadline

Manchester United have given Paris St Germain a 6pm deadline to agree the £23m (€33m) transfer of Ronaldinho.

After weeks of intense negotiations, United chief executive Peter Kenyon finally appears to have lost patience with the French side, who they believe have been dragging the talks out in an effort to secure a higher fee.

“Negotiations between Manchester United and Paris St Germain and representatives of Ronaldinho have been ongoing for several weeks,” said a United statement.

“In order to bring talks to a conclusion the club has spoken again to Paris St Germain and the players’ representatives and following our final written offer submitted on Friday morning, we have notified all parties that unless an agreement is reached by 7pm Central European time today, Manchester United will withdraw from the process.”

Neither Kenyon, nor manager Sir Alex Ferguson was prepared to speak openly on the matter this morning as they arrived at Manchester Airport with the rest of the United party for their four-match tour of the United States.

However, there did appear to be some intensive discussions between the duo and managing director David Gill, which surround rumours that PSG were about to release a statement on the saga, although that has yet to be confirmed.

Ferguson made Ronaldinho his number one summer target and will be hugely disappointed if he fails to beat off interest from Barcelona in the Brazilian playmaker, but United fear they have little option other than to set today’s deadline.

With Blackburn’s Damien Duff in talks with Chelsea, Ferguson faces the real possibility of missing out on a ready-made alternative to Ronaldinho should the talks with PSG be allowed to rumble on.

Numerous deadlines have already passed without any confirmation of a deal being done and last week PSG president Francis Graille attacked Kenyon for failing to back up a verbal offer with a written one.

Graille said tentative agreement had been reached over a £21m (€30m) fee for the player, only for Kenyon to officially submit a £15m (€21m) offer.

United have tried to distance themselves from discussion over the wrangle and have refused at any point to discuss officially just how much they were prepared to offer for the player.

Both Kenyon and Ferguson said this week that they were hopeful of concluding the transfer before United jetted off to the States but once again that desire has not been fulfilled.