REAL AND LINSE NOT PLAYING FAIR

The Times reports that United's patience may be wearing thin with Real Madrid.

Manchester United's hard-line stance with Real Madrid over Ruud van Nistelrooy has been intensified by a distrust of the new regime at the Spanish club, whom United suspect of making an illegal approach to the Holland forward.

The Barclays Premiership club are unlikely to report Real, with an agreement over a transfer fee regarded as beneficial for all parties, but ill feeling has crept into negotiations between the clubs as they haggle over the terms of the expected £13 million deal.

The United board has been unhappy with Real's conduct since it emerged that a verbal agreement had been reached with Van Nistelrooy's agent, Rodger Linse, over a three-year contract. Their frustration is with Real, rather than Linse, and it has grown over the past 48 hours with the Spanish club's unwillingness to meet a £15 million asking price at a time when Sir Alex Ferguson's hopes of replacing Van Nistelrooy with Fernando Torres are receding because of Atlético Madrid's resistance.

Predrag Mijatovic, the new Real technical director, has proposed success-related payments to bridge the shortfall over Van Nistelrooy — such as an extra ¤goalscorer in La Liga next season — but United are holding out for a guaranteed sum, mindful of what happened when David Beckham joined Real in 2003, with the Spanish club's failures over the past three seasons leaving them with at least £2 million less than the projected £25 million fee.