Edwin van der Sar has hinted that he may retire at the end of the season, although the Manchester United and Holland goalkeeper has insisted that he will not make a decision about his future until January at the earliest.

The spotlight will be on Van der Sar as he enters the final year of his contract at Old Trafford after a series of below-par performances last season raised question marks about his future.

Van der Sar was expected to come under intense pressure from Ben Foster for the No 1 jersey, but after the young England goalkeeper was ruled out until March after cruciate knee ligament surgery, the 36-year-old’s only realistic threat is Tomasz Kuszczak, who has yet to prove that he is capable of holding down a first-team place.

But while the Dutchman will be assured of his place against Chelsea in the FA Community Shield on Sunday and for the opening games of the season, he plans to sit down with Ferguson at some point and decide whether to extend his career beyond the summer. “Last season was a long campaign, but I’ve had a good break and I feel good,” he said. “I’m not thinking about what’s going to happen.

“If I’m still enjoying myself we’ll see, but for the moment nothing will be decided before January. I’m not going to overenjoy it just because it might be my last. I’ve had a great career and I’m just going to get on with things.”

Van der Sar admitted that his performances towards the end of last season were not of the standard expected. “You always have to perform to your best at United because if you don’t, someone else is always ready to take your place,” he said. “I didn’t have the same consistency at the end of last season as I had in the previous part of the campaign. I don’t know why.

“There was a couple of things I wasn’t happy with, but when you make mistakes you just have to look at them, look at how you can improve, and then get on with it.”

Two veterans who Ferguson is convinced have plenty of miles left in the tank, however, are Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. Giggs turns 34 in November and Scholes is 33 in the same month, but Ferguson believes that they could play at the highest level for another three years.

“You have to acknowledge that Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are both now the wrong side of 30, but in my view they both have another three years in them,” the United manager said. “They have both looked after themselves and are extremely fit so there are no worries there.”

Ferguson believes that the signings of Owen Hargreaves, Nani and Anderson, and the impending arrival of Carlos Tévez, will bolster a squad that suffered as a consequence of injuries towards the end of last season and will help to end the club’s long-wait to repeat their Champions League triumph of 1999.

“Our signings this summer of Owen Hargreaves, Nani and Anderson — and hopefully Carlos Tévez — give us a really strong squad that will allow us to cope with competing in the Premier League, the Champions League and, of course, the FA Cup and Carling Cup,” he said.

“Last year we had a bad run of injuries on the final part of the season that left us short to handle all the competitions we were in. In the circumstances we did exceptionally well to win the league title, but I was left with the feeling that with just a few more players we might have reached the European Cup final and perhaps won the FA Cup.

“My job is to keep Manchester United at the forefront of the game and adding these four new players will certainly strengthen us, especially in the Champions League.

“We have faltered in three European semi-finals now and a club of our stature should be doing better. Our new players will hopefully enable us to get over this final hurdle. It all adds up to one hell of a squad.”

Manchester United will have the option to buy back Giuseppe Rossi if Villarreal want to sell the Italy Under-21 striker. Sir Alex Ferguson said yesterday that United have first refusal on Rossi after the 20-year-old passed a medical and signed a six-year contract with the Spanish club. The deal is thought to be worth up to £7.5 million.