Fans: 'Sign the Deal, Rio'

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was bombarded with chants of 'sign the deal, Rio' by United's travelling supporters during yesterday's 4-0 thrashing of Charlton Athletic.

Agitated fans are growing restless by the length of time Ferdinand has spent thinking about the deal amid transfer speculation linking the England international with newly-crowned Premiership Champions Chelsea.

However, boss Sir Alex Ferguson is quietly confident Ferdinand will put pen-to-paper in the near future. "We don't want to make a monster out of this thing," Ferguson said.

He added: "You can maybe push players into these things and you can make it worse"

"He knows we want him to sign and that's important and he knows the fans want him to sign, so we don't want to be shoving the lad into something he is not sure about"

"If he's not sure then he should take time - but the most important thing is we want him to do it quickly."