"We admire him greatly and there is every chance he can be here next year.
"I don't think he actually said that [he would leave next summer], he said maybe.
"We do have to start considering the age of our players.
"I've said to Roy, if you can give me 30 games this season, I'll be happy. To get the best out of him, we need to spare him for certain games.
"Roy is 34 years of age and it's the same for everyone else, we will assess it at the right time.
"Roy knows that and his agent knows that. We were never going to negotiate with Roy at this moment in time.
"That was decided long ago between his agent and United chief executive David Gill.
"His contract is up at the end of the season but we knew that three years ago, we knew it two years ago and we knew it last year."
Meanwhile, the News of the Screws report that Keane is doing some coaching:
'Skipper Keane is passing on his skills to two of the junior sides. He spends several hours in the evenings at the club's Carrington HQ with the under-10 and under-14 sides.
'Keane is interested in getting into management and he has already launched that bid by working with United's stars of tomorrow.
'Keane is spending about five hours a week in his new role and the handful of lucky hopefuls and their parents are stunned to have the great man working with them.'