PSV accuse Fergie of 'tapping up' Robben

"You can look back and see similarities to what happened with Stam and Van Nistelrooy. It just seems that, with Ferguson, a leopard never loses its spots."

Raaij added that any move is highly unlikely to happen before next summer and warned he would not sell Robben cheaply.

When a £5million fee was mentioned, he said: "For that money they can get a shirt from Robben with his signature on it, nothing more. I will not tell you what cards I have but that figure is a laugh."

Robben said of his trip to Manchester: "My first impression of Ferguson is that he is a good man to deal with. What I have seen in Manchester looked good, especially Old Trafford is very impressive. It's now up to the clubs and I can't do anything more for the time being."

Meanwhile, Rio Ferdinand was today considering whether to appeal against his eight-month drugs ban after receiving the written reasons from the Football Association for the punishment.

Ferdinand now has until 19 January to decide on his appeal or his ban will start immediately after that date. The England international got the 32-page written verdict yesterday that outlines the reasons why the FA hit him with the ban.

The player's advisers and United have always privately accepted that he would receive some sort of punishment because there was never any doubt that he missed the drugs test. But the defence offered was totally dismissed by the three-man independent commission who rejected Ferdinand's excuse that he "forgot" because he was moving house.

It is being speculated this morning that he may not appeal if his advisers fail to find holes in the commission's findings. Ferdinand's team had originally said that the length of ban made an appeal almost inevitable.

But the defender runs the risk of the ban being extended if it is unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Ryan Giggs has described the eight-month ban as "ridiculous". Giggs admitted everyone at the club had been stunned and said: "We are all gutted for him. I'd prefer to wait and see how his appeal goes before saying too much, but I do hope that they are sensible when they review his ban because to me, eight months seems ridiculous.

"The boys were stunned when we discovered how long the ban was for, because not one of us expected it. Obviously we showed Rio that we felt for him at the time, but in football you have to get on with things and that is what has happened at Manchester United in recent weeks.

"Rio has still been playing in the big games and his form has been tremendous. He has done brilliantly to play on with all this hanging over his head."