On the surface this seems like great news for the club but if you dig a little deeper you’ll see that although it’s reassuring to hear Ronaldo wants to stay; right now, his words are worthless.

Cristiano Ronaldo has served two years of his current five year contract. The winger has just one year left in his “protected period” meaning come next summer, he will be able to buy himself out of the remainder of his contract. He will of course have to pay the club compensation but compared to the transfer fee Ronaldo would command the word pittance springs to mind.

Under FIFA rules, a player may break a contract after a given number of years; currently three years for players under 28 at the point of signing and two years for those over.

Andy Webster was the first player to buy himself out of his contract when he moved from Hearts to Wigan in May 2007. Hearts had been trying to sell the player for £5 million but ended up with compensation of just £625,000.

David Gill will be well aware of this fact and a contract for his superstar player will be priority number one this summer. If Ronaldo really wants to stay at United, then this summer is crunch time. The Winger simply HAS to sign a contract extension or the club run the serious risk of losing the player for a paltry sum in the near future. If the club can’t tie him down, perhaps they’ll have no option but to let him go?

To force a move in such a way would be a show of utter disrespect from Ronaldo towards the club and teammates that have nurtured his talent and supported him through thick and thin. I’d like to think he’d never do something like that to our great club but when you’re talking about a £50+ million asset, surely you can’t take any chances?

Manchester United secured their third successive Premier League title at Old Trafford this afternoon bringing their total top flight league wins to 18.

United kicked off against Arsenal at Old Trafford knowing a point would be enough to secure the title and judging by the performance, a point was the best anyone could have hoped for. United were far from their best but the match ended goalless and trophy number three was in the bag.

This league win puts United on parity with Liverpool in the all time titles race at 18 a piece. However, with United having won 11 out of a possible 17 Premier League titles compared to Liverpool’s none, it would seem United are in pole position to emerge as the countries most successful English team of all time.

According to Ferguson, we won’t have to wait long for that. Asked about equalling Liverpool’s record, the Scot replied:

“It’ll make it more special when we are in front of them. Next year we are going for it again.”

United add the Premier League trophy to the League Cup and World Cup they have already won this season and march on for trophy number four; The Champions League.

Manchester United face Barcelona on May 27th knowing a win would make them the first team ever to successfully defend their Champions League crown. United set records as standard; Roll on Rome.

But before any of that, there is the little matter of a third successive Premier League title. United’s 18th top flight league title – the one that equals Liverpool’s record. If we win it, you’d bet on us reaching 19 before them – I can’t wait.

The 2- 0 win over City at the weekend pushed United to within four points of the title and Patrice Evra admits the team’s focus is now firmly fixed on Premier League glory.

“The win against City was very important for the team because, to play after the European Cup semi-final against Arsenal was not an easy situation.

“All that mattered was the three points so, we are very happy to have collected them.

“We were well aware Liverpool had gone top again on Saturday, so we did our job very well.

“But now we have the game at Wigan on Wednesday and, if we win that one, maybe we can smell the title.

“We are nearly there, but the job is not finished yet. We have a Champ ions League final to look forward to, but we have to put that to the back of our minds and concentrate on the league.”

The meeting of UEFA’s Control and Disciplinary body was arranged to discuss the validity of Manchester United’s protests that Darren Fletcher should not have been sent off and should therefore not miss the final.

UEFA rules state the only basis for an appeal against a refereeing decision is if it were a case of mistaken identity so for UEFA to arrange a special meeting to conclude there is no basis for appeal does nothing more than show what a farce the system is. There was simply no other possible outcome so why have meeting in the first place?

Alex Ferguson never expected any other outcome but felt obliged to protest given Fletcher’s hard work and honest attitude. United have accepted UEFA’s ruling though and the case is now closed.

A United spokesman said: “Darren is an honest player and we felt we should do what we could to try to help him become eligible for the Champions League final by initially protesting his dismissal. However, we respect Uefa’s decision not to admit the protest and we will therefore not be appealing against today’s ruling.”

The real problem for UEFA is the can of worms the case would open should they choose to step in and make an exception. At the meeting, they also discussed impending suspensions in the Barcelona camp. Neither of which would have been contested had it not been for the Fletcher situation. Barcelona figured if UEFA did it for United, they’d have to do it for them and fair play to them; any team would have tried it.

On the positive side, both of Barcelona’s protests were also rejected so they will be missing both their first choice full-backs when we meet in Rome.

I had been hopeful of a positive outcome from this meeting. I was convinced UEFA would watch the video replays and see how unfair it was for Fletcher to miss the final. Perhaps that’s giving UEFA too much credit.

Coming into the game with a 1-0 lead, a goal for the visitors would leave Arsenal the unenviable task of needing three to get through and it didn’t take long to happen. Just under 8 minutes in fact.

From a Cristiano Ronaldo cut-back, young Kieran Gibbs slipped leaving Ji-Sung Park free to fire passed Manuel Almunia. The home fans were stunned and the away contingent ecstatic.

A couple of minutes later, Robin van Persie clattered into Cristiano Ronaldo a little over 45 yards from goal. The angle didn’t look great but Ronaldo had a look and fancied his chances. He lined the shot up, took his step back and struck that ball so sweetly that it dipped and curled all the way into the back of the net.

As a goalkeeper, it has to be disappointing being beaten from such a distance but take nothing away from the free-kick; it was a peach.

Eleven minutes gone and effectively game over. There was no way they were going to score 4. Wenger knew it, the fans most certainly knew it but more importantly, the players knew it.

Resigned to defeat, Arsenal offered little going forward and it was only Almunia’s fingertips that kept the score at two nil coming in for the break.

Arsenal looked to push forward after the restart but were soon caught short.

Ronaldo led the break with a clever flick to Park before he was off charging towards goal. Park picked out Rooney to his left who came forward before laying it off to Ronaldo as he charged into the box. With his closest marker a foot away there was only one place this was going and Ronaldo smashed in his second of the night.

With only an hour of the match played, the stadium began to empty. The home fans had seen enough of this and streams of them headed to the exits.

There was to be no more goals for United but that didn’t mean the drama was over. In the 75th minute, Fabregas burst into the United box but before he got his shot away, Darren Fletcher managed to get a toe to the ball before bringing the Spaniard down. Referee Roberto Rosetti deemed the challenge a foul and Fletcher was off.

Replays clearly show Fletcher played the ball first but with no avenue for appeal, it looks as though Fletcher will miss the final.

From the resulting penalty, Robin van Persie dispatched clinically into the top corner making it 3-1 and the Arsenal fans that remained burst into a chorus of “four more, we only need four more”.

Four more were never coming though and the match ended 3-1. Chelsea play Barcelona tomorrow in the other semi-final with the teams locked at 0-0. I hope Barcelona win; that would be a great final.