Whilst City plan to make no amendments to their current financial structure, with the wage bill currently exceeding their turnover, and Chelsea continue to have the highest wage bill in the league, it was safe to assume that Hazard would not be coming to United.

However, in his most recent statement, he claimed his decision would be based entirely on where he would be played and how much he would play.

“I do not know when I’ll make a decision about my future club,” he said in HLN. “It will be Manchester City, Manchester United or Chelsea. My decision will depend on my position and how much playing time I will get. Not everyone can say that they have a choice between three top clubs.”

If this is true, he is more or less ruling himself out of a move to City, given he certainly wouldn’t be guaranteed playing time there.

However, chances are he will be unveiled as a City player over the next few weeks and, like all the others, insist it has nothing to do with money.

Rafael lost his place in the starting XI after a disappointing performance against Everton in that costly 4-4 draw with Everton towards the end of the season.

Kagawa, who has a year remaining on his current deal, was in Manchester this week to negotiate a deal with United.

“It was good that I was able to meet him in person and talk,” said Kagawa. “I want to think hard before making my decision. I want to choose a team where I can take on challenges.”

“Vidic is still out with a cruciate ligament injury,” Silvano Martina told tuttomercatoweb.com. “A future in Italy? You have to consider that he has a non-EU passport and that would make it difficult for him to arrive in Serie A. I can assure you that I have never spoken with Juventus about Nemanja.”

“The work goes on all year round but obviously intensifies as we come to the end of the season in terms of players,” Gill said. “There’s various contracts we’ve got to do, we’ll look at some acquisitions and there will be some players who will leave. It’s an interesting time.”

Whilst Dimitar Berbatov’s contract was automatically extended for a year in March, it is unlikely he will be offered a new deal, so will be sold in the summer. Last season’s Premier League top scorer has only played in 11 games this season but has still managed to score 7 goals.

Michael Owen is another player that could leave after doing little to dispel the injury prone tag in his time at the club. After a relatively successful first season, scoring a last minute winner against City, scoring in the League Cup final and bagging a hattrick in the Champions League, Owen has hardly played over the past two season. This year he has featured in just four games in all competitions, scoring three goals.

Paul Pogba may also leave, having yet to decide whether he wants to continue at the club or sign for Juventus. Pogba suffered ankle ligament damage in the Reserve game on Monday and has been ruled out for the rest of the season, so may have played his last game for the club.

After an incredible career with Real Madrid, spending sixteen years in the first team, Raul was no longer first choice so decided it was time to leave. He has done brilliantly well with Schalke, scoring 19 goals last season and 20 goals this. According to Opta, during his time in Germany, Raúl has started more matches (95) and played more minutes (8287) than any other Schalke player, which indicates there’s still plenty of life left in him yet.

This morning, the papers have linked him with a move to Qatar, where he would likely receive a £7.5million four-year deal but I would love him to come to United.

Last summer, Ferguson admitted he thought about trying to sign Raul when he left Spain but felt it was unnecessary because we brought in Michael Owen.

“We do prefer to sign young players as a rule but when you get an opportunity to sign experience like that you’ve got to have a look at it,” Ferguson said. “You can make exceptions for certain players, because experience is so valuable. We thought the same when we signed Michael Owen, who has been a terrific professional for us, and bringing in Raúl would have been similar to when we managed to get Henrik Larsson for a short time a few years ago. It was obvious his time at Real Madrid had come to an end, and he certainly wasn’t too old to be effective, as he has been showing in Germany. We spoke to his agent about a possible move but we already had Javier Hernández by then and, with Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen available, we thought we could afford to let the chance pass. If we hadn’t had Michael at the club at the time I might well have signed him.”

Hopefully Michael Owen will leave this summer, Dimitar Berbatov sadly almost certainly will, and there’s every chance Federico Macheda will too, after yet another unnsuccessful loan. Raul has shown in Germany that he’s still got it and the experience he could provide on the training ground would be incredible.

Wayne Rooney would certainly get the nod ahead of him but he could probably still give Danny Welbeck or Chicharito a run for their money. At his age, he obviously wouldn’t be able to play every game, but if he’s banging the goals in still in Germany, there’s no reason why he couldn’t do it here.

When United played Schalke in the Champions League last season, Raul acknowledged the contact between himself and United, despite never speaking to the manager himself, and claimed he liked the idea of playing in England.

“I love the footballing culture there, the respect for the game, the atmosphere, the intensity,” he said. “I’ve been at Old Trafford, Arsenal, at Liverpool watching Fernando Morientes and it’s special. I fancied the idea. I wanted to try something different.”

If Raul wants to end his career in Qatar or USA to bring in the big money, fine, but at 34-years-old, surely we could get a season or two out of him first. He has a job waiting for him at Real Madrid once his playing career is over but it would be incredible to have a legend like him in our shirt before then.

“I am excited about the opportunity to play for Benfica – a very famous and big club,” Fabio told A Bola. “I feel very honoured by Benfica’s interest, but my transfer now depends on negotiations with Manchester United.”

With Patrice Evra’s form being generally below par since the World Cup it seems very strange that the club are open to loaning Fabio out next season. It’s disappointing too. However, there are rumours that the deal has been put in place as a part exchange for Benfica star Nicolas Gaitán.

”Manchester United did talk to me and showed interest,” Adryan told Globo Esporte. ”But I was not interested in moving at that point. Let’s see if something adequate comes up in the future. ‘I don’t think about going to Europe so quickly, things need to be done step by step.”

“He can remain at Manchester United or go to Juventus,” said Raiola. “It’s a tough decision to be taken by the boy, thinking of his career. Both possibilities present some chances. It’s a choice that should be made quietly. United count on him and want to extend his contract. His future will depend very much on the will of the boy.”

Tuttosport claimed today that Juve have offered him €23,000 a week which works out at just under €1.2m a year. It’s hard to know how true these claims are given they refused to pay Lucas Piazón €1m a year, which lead to his move to Chelsea last year.

Gaitán’s current contract expires in 2016 and has a release clause of £45m, which means that United are likely to offer players as well as cash. Macheda, Bebe and Petrucci are the players tipped to be of interest to Benfica.