Manchester United chief executive David Gill has insisted he is treating suggestions of a £135million bid for Cristiano Ronaldo ''with a pinch of salt''.
Sulaiman Al-Fahim, the billionaire businessman at the centre of the Manchester City takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group, said this week they could be willing to make a world record bid for the United star.
Gill said faced with a serious offer of that size, any club would have to consider it.
But he told BBC Radio Five Live: ''It was an interesting comment, I think it's a
fan's-type comment.
''It's interesting when Alex [Ferguson] mentioned the Dimitar Berbatov signing in advance that complaints were made to the Premier League.
''He mentioned Torres and Fabregas in the same article so I think we will treat that with a pinch of salt.
''I have never met the gentleman. That is a fantastic amount of money and would turn the industry upside down so I can't believe he is serious at those sorts of levels.
''Ultimately we would discuss any offer with Alex and the owners, as that sort of money is very large for one person. But we are not in the market to sell our best players.''
Gill also insisted the club stayed ''entirely within the rules'' during their pursuit of Berbatov.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has called for a change in transfer rules, and initially complained to the Premier League about United's approach for the player.
Gill however has rejected allegations that United did anything wrong.
He added: ''We are very comfortable with how the whole thing went. There were allegations made, we are comfortable that how we approached it was entirely correct and within the rules.
''It came together on Monday and the agent was given permission for the player to come up to Manchester, we arranged the plane for him and Alex met him at the airport.
''It's true to say when the medical commenced we had not finished all the final negotiations with Spurs but both parties were confident they would be completed to everyone's satisfaction.
''We are very comfortable we had permission to do what we did and it was clear to Tottenham and Daniel Levy in particular that he knew what we were doing and if that wasn't the case we wouldn't have done it.''
Gill also confirmed they would be looking to finalise a permanent deal for Argentina striker Carlos Tevez.
He said: ''One other bit of business we will do is finalise the Carlos Tevez deal and then the composition of the squad will be first class.''
at 135m pounds... you can probably buy 2 very good strikers, 1 very good midfielder and a very very good defender and i don't see what's the point in getting C. Ronaldo in whichever senses... other then being "the player" currently, C. Ronaldo is never gonna worth that kinda amount, ManU would be stupid not to agree to it is its on a full cash bid.
like what Gill said, its going to turn the market upside down if that bid is made, but i would think its probably just going to be a bold and over exicted reaction when they landed ManC and starting making bids for the rest of the players they're rummored to be interested in..
the sheik is nuts