Hargreaves keeps his options open

Owen Hargreaves has refused to rule out the possibility of a move to Manchester United.

The England midfielder confirmed earlier this week that he was closer to leaving Bayern Munich for the Premiership than he had ever been.

However, fresh reports have emerged in Germany claiming the 25-year-old is mulling over an offer to join United, even though Bayern general manager Uli Hoeness has stated firmly the Bundesliga champions have no intention of releasing one of their star men.

Hargreaves was alerted to the content of the article by telephone yesterday, just hours before his man-of-the-match performance in the 4-0 win over Greece at Old Trafford.

While claiming sections of its content may be inaccurate, he opted not to play down the United aspect of it.

“I have not read the article,” he said.

“It is the way it always is with these things. Some of it is accurate. Some of it is not.

“I cannot go into specifics but we will see how things pan out over the next few days.”