SIR ALEX Ferguson warned Manchester City's mega-rich owners last night that all the money in the world wouldn't tempt him or the Glazer family to sell Cristiano Ronaldo this summer - even if Sheikh Mansour offers ?120 million ($263m).

The Manchester United boss was responding to City backer Sheikh Mansour's incredible ?107m offer for AC Milan midfield star Kaka.

And Ferguson insisted if City value Kaka at that level then World and European Footballer of the Year Ronaldo must be worth at least ?120m in the current crazy climate.

But even if Mansour turned up at Old Trafford with a van loaded with gold bullion for Ronaldo's signature, Ferguson and the Glazers - United's American owners - wouldn't think twice about sending the Abu Dhabi Sheikh packing.

United have already seen off massive interest from Real Madrid for the 24-year-old winger and Ferguson said last night: 'Do you think we'd sell Ronaldo if City came calling with ?120m in the summer? There's no chance of that happening - none at all.

'The owners of this club don't want to sell him - they want him here even more than me. I am sure of that, absolutely sure of it - they are strong about keeping Ronaldo here as long as we can.

'What City are doing does beg the question what value do you put on players now after this - and it's difficult to assess. Kaka is obviously one of the top players in the world, I think he is, definitely.

'So, then you have to say if he's worth ?107m then so is Messi and Ronaldo. That's the only way you can judge it. And you could argue that Ronaldo being World and European Player of the Year is worth ?120m.

'You cannot think football is right talking about these kind of figures. But we are only talking this type of money because someone is rich enough to do that.

'The people at Man City have a big intent to bring a lot of big players to Eastlands. It's going to cost a lot of money to do that and they are not afraid of that.

'It's only 12/13 years ago that Jack Walker's millions changed the Premier League and look how far we have come now.

'Somebody could follow City's lead if someone incredibly rich buys another club.

'But no club with a normal running operation could contemplate getting to that level of debt. These guys aren't even talking about debt either - they have that money to spend.'

Critics have suggested that Brazilian star Kaka would simply be joining City for the money if they're willing to pay him ?500,000 a week and Eastlands is in danger of becoming a magnet for football mercenaries from across the globe.

Mercenaries

Says Ferguson: 'It's difficult to say whether players going to City would be mercenaries - it depends what you are offering. If you are offering Kaka the opportunity to win the European Cup in four or five years' time that would be an incentive to him and a challenge.

'But it's not as easy as that. Buying players doesn't necessarily get you the best team.'

Ferguson admitted that although Ronaldo is settled again after last summer's attempt by Real Madrid to de-stabilise their star winger, he expected them to try again during the transfer window this month.

And he's not ruled out the whole Ronaldo for Madrid circus bubbling up again this summer - even if president Ramon Calderon has lost his job at the Bernabeu.

'We are in a strong position with Ronaldo and we are where we are. We did our hard work in the summer to settle young Cristiano down and we did well with that. He's fully settled here,' says Fergie.

'I did expect it all to surface again this month but it's been quiet and that's may- be because Calderon has had his wings clipped a bit although it's difficult to say.

'It may all surface again in the summer but I thought it would happen in January with all this pre-emptive work they do as a build up to the summer.

'I've read that Madrid are saying a deal has been done for the summer. But do you think I'd do a deal with Real Madrid? And do you think if we had it would have been keep quiet?

'Nothing will change because Calderon has gone, but regardless of all that we have done the hard work on this and that's the end of the matter.

'Cristiano has already made the point that he could only have won all the awards he's been winning lately by being at Manchester United - he knows that.

'We are proud of the boy because he's the first United player to win the world award, it's a great achievement because it genuinely does go to other European countries. He's the first English-based player to win it.

'He's done fantastically well - why would we let him leave?'

STEVE BATES Special Correspondent