Fergie defiant over Veron

Sir Alex Ferguson watched Juan Veron lead a 4-1 rout of Juventus here in the Giants Stadium and again insisted the Argentinian would still be a Manchester United player at the start of the season.

Old Trafford's £28million midfielder collected the man-of-the-match honours in front of 79,005 fans in New Jersey on the club's US tour, capping a superb United performance with two outstanding passes which led to goals for Paul Scholes and Ruud van Nistelrooy. Ryan Giggs and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer added the others.

And, while Veron continues to be linked with a £15m move to Chelsea, Ferguson maintained his stance that the player is going nowhere.

"People keep seeing him on this tour and people still keep saying he is going," said Ferguson. "Unless he is going to be whisked from right under my nose they are wrong.

"Seba is a marvellous player. He has wonderful imagination, he always wants the ball and has a great engine. He was outstanding last night." While Chelsea continue their pursuit of Veron they also look to be renewing their interest in Christian Vieri.

They have already had a £20m bid turned down by Internazionale for the Italian international. Vieri has been strangely left out of Inter's squad for the Amsterdam pre-season tournament which starts tonight, even though he is not injured amid speculation that Chelsea have upped their offer to £25m.