Manchester United have never attempted to sign Internazionale star Wesley Sneijder, a club source has told a BBC journalist - but may still enter the transfer market for a playmaker.

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"Ive had confirmation that Manchester United are NOT trying to sign Wesley Sneijder from Inter Milan and never were in for him," stated Howard Nurse of the BBC on his Twitter account.

This backs up Sir Alex Ferguson's comments earlier today denying a move would take place.

"I keep reading about this, there's absolutely nothing at all to that," Ferguson said to ESPN Soccernet.

"First of all I don't think Inter are prepared to sell him anyway."

"You get conjecture and you get speculation every week in newspapers unfortunately. And we have to answer these for some reason - why, I don't know, but we have to find a reason without adding insult to any particular club, or embarrassing any particular player.

"There's nothing we can do about it."

Still, regardless of the Sneijder transfer rumours, Ferguson hinted a playmaker will be bought in the wake of Paul Scholes' retirement.

"How do you replace someone like Paul Scholes?"

If you were to bracket the best four midfield players in the world, he'd be up there with Xavi and Andres Iniesta, then take your pick from somebody else."

"He's certainly, to my mind, one of the top four in the world, so it's a loss.

"It's impossible to get another Paul Scholes.

"But if we can get another player on similar lines in terms of quality of passing and vision then, yeah, we would have to do something."

With words such as those, Manchester United will continue to be linked with the likes of Palermo star Javier Pastore, Ganso of Santos and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Luka Modric - though the latter is seemingly set for Chelsea.