The Red Devils plan to add the Portuguese winger to their top earners by giving him a new four-year deal worth £130,000 a week, reports The Sun.

The 24-year-old has two years left on his remaining £90,000 a week deal  and manager Sir Alex Ferguson believes Nani can play an integral part in their quest for trophies.

He has won over the sceptics after a slow start to his United career following his £18m move from Sporting Lisbon in 2007.

Nani was voted the players’ player of the year last season and has indicated he wants to stay at Old Trafford despite interest from Italian giants Juventus and AC Milan.

The Premier League champions are ready to spend after raking in a record £175million profit in six months.

United also cut their debts in the second half of last year with the money owed to the Glazer family, under the terms of their takeover, reduced from £508m to £439m.

Deschamps was in the stands on Friday as Inter slumped to a 3-0 home defeat to Bologna, their third consecutive Serie A defeat and second straight at home following the stunning 1-0 loss to relegation-threatened Novara.

That form has seen Inter drop to seventh in the table, heaping pressure on coach Claudio Ranieri, for whom the Champions League offers one final chance of redemption this season.

However, Deschamps is expecting to see a much stronger version of Inter tomorrow night.

“They are a team that is not playing well at the moment,” he said in L’Equipe. “I have seen their previous matches on television, and there have been lots of individual defensive mistakes.

“But I am convinced we will not see the same Inter as of their last four Serie A matches. They will not erase everything in four or five days, but collectively they will be better.

“The Champions League can bring the focus and determination they have missed.”

Marseille have been in less than convincing league form themselves, drawing their last two matches to fall further off the pace at the top of Ligue 1, with the gap to the top now 12 points, just two points better than the difference between Inter and Serie A leaders AC Milan.

Deschamps is now waiting to see whether this weekend’s 1-1 draw with Valenciennes also cost him the services of Alou Diarra, who only resumed training today after suffering a toe injury and remains doubtful.

Inter will be strengthened by the return of Diego Milito and Dejan Stankovic, who missed the Bologna defeat.

Diego Forlan could find his place under threat with the return of Milito, but the veteran Uruguayan, who joined Inter from Atletico Madrid in the summer, still believes he made the right move and has backed Ranieri to turn the team’s fortunes around.

“I came here, played a few matches, and then the coach changed. It happens – suffering an injury, too,” Forlan told UEFA.com. “However I have always felt happy here; I’m totally convinced by the decision to come.

“Ranieri is a great coach. In fact I’ve played against his teams in England and in Spain a few times, and I always respected him. He’s coached many big teams. Now I am coached by him, and it’s a real privilege.

“We are convinced that we can return to how we were doing during that series of seven consecutive [league] wins.”

Bayern face Basel in the Champions League on Wednesday night after a 0-0 draw with Freiburg at the weekend.

That result saw Bayern fall four points behind Borussia Dortmund at the top of the Bundesliga, increasing the importance of Wednesday’s clash in Switzerland as they look to avoid a repeat of last year’s trophyless season.

It also showed Heynckes that there is no such thing as an easy game.

“We will not be underestimating Basel, especially after last Saturday,” he said.

“Basel have impressed me with the way they have put together a well-organised side with a good mixture of experienced players, some of whom have played in the Bundesliga, and talented young players who have a big career ahead of them.”

One of those players is Xherdan Shaqiri, who has already agreed to join Bayern from Basel in the summer.

However, the Switzerland international says he has no point to prove.

“I think I have already impressed them enough,” he said. “I am concentrating on playing for FC Basel.”

Bayern could do with Shaqiri now as they are currently suffering without Bastian Schweinsteiger, who will also be absent on Wednesday night.

David Alaba should take his place again, but Austria’s player of the year still lacks the same experience and aura of Bayern and Germany’s vice-captain.

“Alaba has shown that we can cover for him to a certain extent, but Bastian is our brains,” said Heynckes.

“Schweinsteiger plays a big role for us. When Schweini was 20, he was not as influential as he was when he was 25 either.

“We need to work as a collective and talk more on the field to get back to where we were, and to where we want to be.”

Basel coach Heiko Vogel says he is paying no attention to Bayern’s recent league results.

“Tomorrow is the Champions League, not the Bundesliga,” he said. “We have got to concentrate on our own strengths and not what happened against Freiburg, Stuttgart or Kaiserslautern.

“They have no influence on this game. Tomorrow is Basel against Bayern.

“We are playing a top-quality side and we are going to have to play very well and have the right attitude, but so too must Bayern.”

Vogel is without veteran midfielder Scott Chipperfield and Philipp Degen, who both have thigh strains.

England’s caretaker manager Pearce names his squad on Thursday for next week’s friendly against Holland and Terry’s absence removes the thorny issue of whether he should be selected.

Terry denies a charge of using racist language towards Anton Ferdinand during a game against Queens Park Rangers in October but the case has been adjourned until July.

That prompted the FA to strip him of the England captaincy, leading directly to Fabio Capello resigning as manager.

Terry’s participation in this summer’s European Championship in any capacity must also be in question.

Even if he returns in April for the end of the season, he will play only a few games before the squad is picked, and the identity of the man picking that squad is still unknown.

For Chelsea manager Villas-Boas, the consequences are more immediate as he fights to secure his future at Stamford Bridge without the experience of his skipper in central defence.

Terry, 31, will miss key Barclays Premier League games against Manchester City, Tottenham and possibly Arsenal, an FA Cup replay and the second leg of the Champions League tie against Napoli.

The operation is an arthroscopy to explore the extent of bone bruising to his right knee which has been causing pain.

Such bruising is usually caused when two bones jar together but the timescale of six to eight weeks which Chelsea are putting on a return suggests some further surgical work is expected.

‘Hopefully John will be out for less than six weeks,’ said Villas-Boas.

Terry has not played since an FA Cup fourth-round tie at QPR on January 28 which was overshadowed by his reunion with Ferdinand and missing handshakes.

It was only four days before the opening of Terry’s court case concerning the October clash.

With hindsight, it seems Terry was not fully fit and ought to have missed the game against Rangers but he was determined not to dodge the rematch with Ferdinand.

In so doing, he further aggravated a knee problem which had been nagging away for some time. Terry returned to training last week and travelled to Naples in the hope of playing some part in the Champions League game.

He trained with the squad in the San Paolo Stadium on Monday evening but was still reporting slight pain in his knee and the decision was made to go ahead with an operation.

Chelsea are considering a swap deal by offering Daniel Sturridge for Arsenal’s Theo Walcott. (The Sun)

Manchester City are weighing up a summer move for Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain. (Daily Mail)

Arsene Wenger is interested in young Standard Liege defender Daniel Opare. (The Sun)

Liverpool are monitoring Hertha Berlin midfielder Raffael. (The Sun)

The Reds have sent scouts to watch the 26-year-old playmaker in action for Hertha Berlin in recent weeks.

Raffael has scored five goals and provided six assists for the Bundesliga strugglers, who are just two points above the drop zone

Italian clubs Lazio or Sampdoria have also checked out Raffael, who is valued at around £7 million.

Andre Villas-Boas’ beloved project went up in smoke in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius on Tuesday night. The Chelsea manager’s belief in players like Raul Meireles proved calamitously costly, leaving an ordinary defence exposed time and again to the counter-attacking verve of Napoli’s Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani.

Just when it seemed that Real Madrid’s work in Russia was done, Pontus Wernbloom volleyed in a 93rd-minute goal for CSKA Moscow to secure an unlikely 1-1 scoreline in their Champions League last-16 first leg. When the shock subsides, José Mourinho may reflect that a score draw is not a bad result away from home; he will also reflect, though, that while Madrid rarely shone, they largely controlled a game that they had looked like winning from the moment Cristiano Ronaldo scored the opener in the 28th minute.

In the 93rd minute, though, a cross swung in from the right was met by two headers, the second of them back across the face of the six-yard box where the Swede, making his first appearance for CSKA, stretched to score. It was CSKA’s first shot on target. Their only previous chance had come in the opening seven minutes when Georgy Shennikov’s early cross found Alan Dzagoev. Falling backwards, he put his volley wide.

Madrid took the lead mid-way through the first half. A deep, looping cross from the left dipped into the penalty area and towards Zoran Tosic. Leaning forward awkwardly, he misjudged its flight horribly and failed to get decent contact on the ball. Ronaldo didn’t. As it fell to him, 15 yards out, the Portuguese striker hit it left-footed on the bounce and sent it beyond the keeper. It was Ronaldo’s 36th goal of another astonishingly productive season.

Madrid were comfortable. Ronaldo, in particular, was active, while Xabi Alonso was starting to exert an ever greater influence. Sami Khedira was an able assistant alongside him and at centre-back Pepe was alert and aggressive. The few chances there were fell Madrid’s way. Sergey Chepchugov made an excellent double from Gonzalo Higuaín and Khedira. Then early in the second half José Callejón twice had opportunities in the inside left position – his first shot was scuffed, his second smothered.

Madrid did little more by way of attacking, but then they did not need to. This was a far from exciting game but it seemed effective enough for Mourinho’s side and there were isolated chances to have made it safe. Sergio Ramos headed straight at Chepchugov, who then came out to deny Ronaldo space as he reached Alonso’s clever pass. In the final five minutes, Ronaldo steered the shot wide. It appeared to matter little: Madrid had a 1-0 lead and an extra centre-back, Raúl Albiol, was sent on to ensure they got it. Besides, CSKA had not threatened Madrid at all. Until Wernbloom suddenly appeared on the edge of their six-yard box.

Mourinho said: “Without doing anything out of this world we had the chances to score a second goal. I’m frustrated but it is not a bad result. I am not happy but I am not too sad either. It’s not a drama. It happened to us last year in Lyon and we got through to the quarter-finals then.”

Source: Guardian

Itumeleng Khune says that his loyalty to Premier Soccer League (PSL) club side Kaizer Chiefs remains undiminished.

Amakhosi’s new skipper signed a new three-year deal last month to renew his commitment to the club, and he has declared he is a ‘Khosi 4 Life’.

“It is really good that I signed a new three-year contract and if it was up to me, I was going to sign a lifetime contract with the club,” Khune told Kickoff.com.

“This team has been really good to me and I have been really good to them. I consider Chiefs my second home and I will always deliver for the team whenever given an opportunity,” he said.

The 24-year-old says that the cancelled Crystal Palace trial is now water under the bridge.

“I already committed myself to Chiefs with a three-year deal so I’m not even thinking of Crystal Palace. Now my focus in on Chiefs,” Khune added.

And Gunners fans who have done the maths want to know why he has not spent it.

The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust are demanding answers from club owner Stan Kroenke and the Emirates board as Wenger makes it seven seasons without a trophy.

At a lively AST meeting last night, members asked if Wenger was held back from spending last summer and in January because of fears Arsenal would not qualify for next season’s Champions League.

They also wanted to know why North London rivals Spurs are so far ahead despite having a 40 per cent lower wage bill.

Fans fear failure to secure a top-four spot will lead to playing budgets being slashed.

Arsenal are expected to announce pre-tax profits of about £45m — boosted by the sales of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri.

The club insists it is Wenger’s choice to spend on players.