Santos Respond to Neymar Bid Reports As United Chase Bolt

Manchester United and Santos have dismissed reports the Red Devils made a club record bid for Neymar on deadline day.

The Sun claimed United tabled a £38m offer for the 20 year old on transfer deadline day, after losing out on Sao Paulo playmaker Lucas Moura to Paris St Germain earlier in the summer. The report also said the move failed because Neymar wanted to stay at Santos till the 2014 World Cup, which is set to be held in Brazil.

However, United have dismissed the report and stressed that no offer was made for the forward at any point during the summer window and their denial has been supported by Santos' football director Felipe Faro.

"I have no idea where it came from, but it is not true," Sky Sports quoted Faro as saying. Neymar's father Neymar Santos also denied the report and took a potshot at regular rumours linking the player with moves to Europe.

"Neymar was sold two years ago but we are still here," he joked.

The youngster has already made 190 appearances for Santos in all competitions, scoring 113 goals.

Bolt Could Play for United

Meanwhile, Sir Alex Ferguson has hinted he could allow Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt to appear for United in a friendly next year.

The Jamaican has made it known several times that he would love to play for the Red Devils one day and Ferguson has now revealed the 25 year old could play in a friendly with Real Madrid Legends, scheduled for 3 June at Old Trafford.

"We're going to get him up. He's been here a couple of times and he did help Cristiano Ronaldo with his sprinting, like he said. He took him aside one day. He's a bit of a character and a big United fan. But it's interesting he says he'd like to play in a charity game. It could be brilliant and next year, when we play Real Madrid's Legends again, there could be opportunities to bring him up and see how he does," the club Web site quoted Ferguson as saying.

Bolt has established himself as one of the greatest Olypmic sprinters of all time, after racing to gold in the men's 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at both the Beijing 2008 Games and London 2012 Games.