Man United chase Toon star?

Last updated : 27 October 2002 By Martyn Elliott

'Please don't send me to Manchester'
This one’s a bit convoluted, but would be worrying if there was any truth in it.

Manchester United will sell Juan-Sebastian Veron to Lazio and use the money to buy AC Milan’s Ukranian superstar Andriy Shevchenko and our very own Welsh wizard Craig Bellamy.

Fergie will apparently play Bellamy in the hole behind Ruud van Nistelrooy and Shevchenko.

Now I hate to pick holes in the story, but Lazio are on the verge of bankruptcy and have yet to pay Man U for Jaap Stam – so how could they afford Veron?

Secondly, AC Milan are challenging for both the Champions League and Italian Championship and are unlikely to want to sell their best player when his replacement would be Jon Dahl Tomasson.

Thirdly, where would Paul Scholes play in this line-up?

Finally and most importantly Sir Bobby is already talking to Bellamy about a new contract and recently told Italian clubs that he is not for sale. We certainly wouldn’t sell him to another English club.

Apparently Sir Bobby would like Bellamy on the bench with Zidane playing behind Ronaldo and Shearer, but that seems pretty unlikely as well!