Ferguson and United to start contract talks

Sir Alex Ferguson will begin negotiations early next week on whether to extend his existing contract at Manchester United by either two years or three years.

United are leaving it up to their manager to decide whether he wants his new deal to finish in 2007 or 2008. Talks will resume on Tuesday when Ferguson's solicitor returns from holiday. "These things don't happen easily, there are lots of points to make," Ferguson said yesterday. "But I have two years left on my existing deal so I'm not worrying about my contract yet."

There seems no chance, however, that Fabien Barthez will play for Manchester United again, although his loan move back to his former club, Marseilles, has yet to be ratified by either the French FA or Fifa, football's world governing body.

Marseilles, who sold Barthez to United three years ago for a fee of £7.8m, a British record for a goalkeeper, need permission from both to re-sign the 32-year-old to replace their second-choice keeper, Cedric Carasso, who suffered a cruciate ligament injury which will keep him out for the rest of the season. However, this is unlikely to be granted until next week.

Ferguson has never forgiven Barthez for errors he made in the European Cup quarter-final with Real Madrid. The 3-1 defeat in the Bernabeu sealed his fate and Roy Carroll was in goal for both the second leg and the crucial Premiership encounter with Arsenal. Ferguson claimed Barthez's decision to take part in the Confederations Cup during the summer hardly helped the Frenchman's cause while his rivals were on United's tour of America.

"Fabien went to the Confederations Cup with France while Roy Carroll and Tim Howard were in the United States," Ferguson said. "They kept fit. They played their games. They did all their training and Fabien did not join up until 7 August in Lisbon and that's the whole story.

"It can't be easy being third-choice at Manchester United for a lad who's won the World Cup and European Championship. Tim Howard was signed in the summer, did fantastically from the moment he played for us in the USA and hasn't looked back. Roy Carroll, equally, has done nothing wrong so unfortunately for Fabien timing has gone against him. These things happen in life. It's a horrible thing about football that a young player can turn the corner at any time and take your position."