TANNED and refreshed as he looked ahead to his 32nd season as a manager, Sir Alex Ferguson was in jovial mood yesterday, lauding Edwin van der Sar as the man who would finally exorcise the ghost of Peter Schmeichel, but it did not take long for bonhomie to give way to anxiety when he was asked about the impasse in contract negotiations with Rio Ferdinand.

Having suggested in April that Ferdinand was “very close” to agreeing a new contract potentially worth more than £100,000 a week, Ferguson must be surprised that the defender has disregarded the four-week deadline that he was given to sign the deal at the start of May. Pini Zahavi, Ferdinand’s agent, said last week that his client would not sign that contract and that no new talks were planned, a statement that has alarmed United.

“I think it is a fantastic offer by the club,” Ferguson said of the package that, according to United, remains on the table. “I think there will be another meeting soon between Rio’s agent and David Gill (the club’s chief executive). We want Rio to sign now because it will put the matter to rest. It has created speculation that we don’t want. We want to be ready for the Champions League qualifier next month with everyone remaining here. That can be solidified by Rio signing.”

Publicly, United maintain that there is no urgency about Ferdinand, whose £70,000-a-week deal has nearly two years to run, but with the player having turned down a club-record offer, there is concern that he might not sign a new deal, with Zahavi intimating that the player would exercise his freedom of contract and leave on a free transfer in 2007.

Gill is due back from holiday in the next 24 hours and is thought to be keen to arrange a meeting with Zahavi before the club leave for Hong Kong a week today on the first leg of their pre-season Far East tour. Whether such a meeting can be arranged — and, more important, whether the club would be able to offer an improvement on their most recent offer — is not known, but the indications are not encouraging.

At least Ferguson had reason to celebrate yesterday when he expressed his delight at signing Van der Sar from Fulham for £2 million. The 34-year-old may be a short-term solution to the goalkeeping problems that have afflicted United in the six seasons since Schmeichel’s departure, but Ferguson spoke in positive terms about the player. “We did look at Edwin back in 1999,” Ferguson said. “If we had been quicker, I think we would have got him, but we were too slow and he went to Juventus instead.”

Ferguson offered a vote of confidence to Tim Howard, who will be Van der Sar’s understudy for the next two years, but it also emerged that he has asked Stoke City about Ben Foster, their 22-year-old goalkeeper. Foster has yet to play for Stoke, his only first-team experience coming on loan to Kidderminster Harriers and Wrexham, but he has attracted glowing reports.

• Paul Gascoigne is to coach Algarve United, a minor Portuguese team, the club’s owner said last night. “Gascoigne said he wants to be our main coach,” Corrado Correggi said. “He wants to teach young talent how to be good professionals and not commit the mistakes he did.”

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