SIR ALEX FERGUSON’S tip for the Grand National was an each-way bet on the outsider Idle Talk. It was an ironic choice of horse given the manager’s feeling that loose words, as much as anything, are Manchester United’s enemy as they seek to reassert authority in the title race. Ferguson’s reading of the insipid, ill-disciplined performances which led to ego-bruising defeats versus Liverpool and Fulham is that his players were affected by complacency as a result of believing their own hype.

“The good point for me is all that nonsense that was spoken about ‘untouchables’ and all that crap: it’s all gone now,” Ferguson said. He also attacked the BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson for suggesting on radio that he and Wayne Rooney have had a serious bust-up.

“Absolute nonsense,” said Ferguson. “I don’t know where it came from but the revealing part was (Lawrenson said) ‘everyone knows’. Well, I didn’t know and I was there. These guys are self-promoters.”

Idle talk is also surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo once again.

Yesterday saw a new round of stories speculating that the Portuguese No7 will join Real Madrid in the summer. The alleged fee was £75m. United’s response was one of weary, off-the-record ridicule. Undermining anyone’s ability to say ‘Ronaldo for Real’ with any certainty is the fact that the Spanish club are engaged in another bout of presidential elections, with the ballot on the far-off date of June 14.

Until then, no one can know for sure if Real even want him. Ramon Calderon, who resigned in disgrace in January, is standing for election again and is likely to promise he will sign Ronaldo, but Florentino Perez, Calderon’s main rival and the election favourite, has yet to indicate what pledges he will make. Perez might well try to lure voters with an alternative pledge – buying Kaka, or Franck Ribery, or Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas, for example.

It is true, however, that having worked so hard to keep Ronaldo last summer, United’s disinclination to offer him a new contract, given his current one expires in three years and does not even put the World Player of the Year among the top five-paid players in England, never mind the world, is unusual.

Calderon would reportedly pay Ronaldo a €12m salary and hand Jorge Mendes, his agent, an €8m sweetener for arranging any move. United are expected to sign Antonio Valencia from Wigan this summer and the left winger was oustanding for Ecuador against Brazil in midweek. In January, Ferguson also signed, for a combined fee in excess of £15m, two young Serbians, Zoran Tosic and Adem Ljajic, both of whom can play on the flank.

Against Aston Villa today, Ferguson will be hoping for something better from Ronaldo than the prissy performance the Portuguese gave in United’s debacle at Fulham. Dimitar Berbatov is injured and Rooney suspended and United need goals. They have been craving them all season. The last time Ferguson’s team scored at such a low rate in the Premier League and Champions League was the barren campaign of 2004-05.

They are in contention to win five trophies because of their defending. It is a novel position but not – with Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Edwin Van der Sar losing form – a comfortable one.

At April 5 2008, Ronaldo’s scoring tally for the season stood at 36 goals in 40 United appearances. On the same date this year, it is 17 in 39. Asked why United’s scoring rate is down, Ferguson said: “I haven’t analysed that. I don’t need to analyse that. I think as long as we’re making chances, that’s all I can ask. You hope you put a percentage of them away, of course, but there’s still a few players at respectable goalscoring levels.” He conceded: “The one who’s not at the same level as last year is Ronaldo, but he’ll still score over 20 goals (for the season). We’ve got Berbatov on 13 or 14 goals, Rooney around that mark and Tevez around that too. So we’re not too bad. If we get four or five over 20 goals, it puts you in the frame.”

In fairness to Ronaldo, he has been used more as a conventional winger since Berbatov became the centre-point of United’s attack. Last season, Ronaldo had a freer role and scored on numerous occasions by drifting in off the touchline to arrive in the box and convert a chance. Ferguson indicated, because of the absences, that he may be used in a central position today and that Federico Macheda, a tall and elegant Italian 17-year-old who is already being compared to Berbatov, is in line for promotion from the reserve team to United’s bench. But much will rest on Carlos Tevez, who suffered the trauma of Argentina’s 6-1 defeat in Bolivia in midweek and only arrived back in England at 4pm on Friday.

“Tevez is used to it (coming back from long trips). He did it for us last season. He came back on Friday and played on the Saturday and was outstanding,” Ferguson said.

United are used to enjoying a goal difference advantage over their title rivals but now “it’s a neck and neck thing”, their manager admitted. He disclosed that he and the players “have had a couple of discussions”, which seasoned Ferguson watchers took to mean that the hairdryer has been out. “We all saw that nonsense that was going on with the players. You hope it doesn’t make an impact,” he said.

“The best thing (about recent United defeats) is the realisation you’re losing that nice comfortable lead in the table and you have to get the finger out.”