Manchester United News: Valencia Agrees New Contract, Hernandez in Queue

New Contract For The Duo

Manchester United star winger Antonio Valencia has agreed a new, improved contract with the club, United Chief Executive David Gill has revealed.

“He has agreed a new deal and we are in the process of finalising that. He has been away at the Copa America and we’ve been away here, but that’s broadly sorted out. That should be announced next week, when we’re back from the States. Antonio signed for four years, so he’s got two left. The length of the deal will come out when it comes out, but it’s a longer-term deal, yes.”

The 26 year old winger, signed in the summer of 2009 from Wigan Athletic, played an important part in the latter stages of United’s title winning 2010-11 campaign, after missing out most of the season due to a horrific ankle injury. The player received another blow on the same ankle earlier this month while playing for Ecuador in the Copa America and was sent back to Manchester in the middle of the tournament.

Gill spoke in length about other players undergoing contract negotiations with the club and also expressed his satisfaction at United’s ‘very comfortable’ financial position.

Javier Hernandez is set to be rewarded for his exceptional performances in his breakthrough season with the Red Devils with a new contract.

“He [Hernandez] came on a five-year deal, as did Chris. We did Chris because there was a re-negotiation clause in his contract, which we would have done anyway, if he met a certain number of appearances, which he did. There’s no such clause in Javier’s contract, but we want to address it when there is no pressure with regards to that issue, so we intend to do it in the autumn.”

Manchester United have already renewed the contracts of Chris Smalling and Park Ji Sung over the summer. Though, one player who has just 12 months remaining on his contract and is waiting for renewal talks is Dimitar Berbatov. However, Gill said that Berbatov is an integral part of the squad and negotiations with his agent will take place soon.

“There is an option to extend Dimitar’s contract by another year, on the club’s side. But there’s no point yet. We have until the end of the season, so we can assess how it goes, talk to him, see how he performs and see what happens. We can do it whenever we want to do it and there are no conditions around it. Everyone has been talking about Berbatov from the outside, saying he wants to leave or that we want want him to leave, but we don’t want him to go.

“I’ve not had one conversation with Dimitar [about his future]. There has been no correspondence in that respect. The decision Alex took [leaving Berbatov out of the Champions League final] was a decision he took for that particular game.

“It wasn’t a decision taken with a view that we want Dimitar to go, because we don’t.”

United have spent around 50M this summer on the trio of Phil Jones, Ashley Young and David de Gea as they look to replace the likes of Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Van der Sar who hung up their boot after last season. Gill reassured the fans about club’s financial situation and said:

“We are very comfortable with our financial structure. We are producing record turnover and record profits and we can meet our obligations. We have been clear all along. There is money in the bank.

“Some people have not believed us but if a player is required to improve the squad and challenge for top honours, the money is there. That is still the case. We are not afraid to spend big money on players of a certain age.”