Ruud: "I want to stay at Manchester United. Rumours of my moving to Barcelona are from the land of fairy tales"
However today's Sun still maintains that Ruud wants to leave, with either Barca or Real Madrid his preferred destinations
He talks of Euro 2004: "I know everybody’s worried but I’m fit.
"We have great talent, and now we’ve started breaking ourselves in." He said the team would grow in strength with its remaining warm-up matches, and would benefit from training together in Lausanne in the run-up to the tournament. "That will be the first time we’ll really have to be with each other and work on some things," he explained.
Joan Laporta, Barca President on the meeting with Ruud's agent last Monday on the Costa Brava:
'It was an absolutely informal meeting and in no sense did we start up discussions.
'We have to be thinking of the market but in this case nothing has happened.
'We are not in the market for negotiations as the player is very happy at Manchester and Manchester want to keep him.'