It must be difficult for newspapers when footballers and managers have the audacity not to say anything regarding their future. How can you bolster circulation throughout the summer months when they decide to keep schtum for a few weeks, keeping your reading public in the dark when they have a right to know?!

There are no such problems for the Daily Mirror, who have invented a ‘close friend’ for Cristiano Ronaldo. Let’s call him Paolo Pinto, someone who went to school with the Manchester United forward and has been in touch with him ever since. Paolo (which is definitely, I repeat definitely, not a fictional character) has revealed that Cristiano (as he calls him) is jolly well fed-up with United’s aggressive stance over his future when all he wants to do is leave Old Trafford and play for Real Madrid.

“Ronaldo has made his mind up now and feels it is just time to wait before he announces what he will do - which is to go to Madrid.”

“The announcement about Cristiano’s future will be the next step, but it won’t happen until the end of Euro 2008 for him and Portugal,” added the insider.

“At the moment he’s trying to work out what United are playing at and why they’re saying what they’re saying, because it’s simply not right.

“He is determined to be the master of his own future.

“The decision has been made and now it’s a case of everybody getting in position for the future - even if United aren’t yet ready to sit down and talk to Real.”

Well done Paolo, it’s like hearing from the great player himself. It’s so great that a close confidante of Ronaldo is happy to spill the beans at every turn, who needs to wait until the end of Euro 2008 to hear what’s really happening!