Blanc staying put PSG owner insists

PARIS Saint Germain coach Laurent Blanc will not replace David Moyes as manager at Manchester United, the club’s Qatari bosses have said.

The club’s owner Nasser Al Khelaifi insisted on beIN SPORTS on Sunday - before reports of Moyes' future emerged - that Blanc will be in charge at PSG next season.

He said: “Laurent Blanc will stay with us. He's very happy, and there is no reason for him not to stay.”

Despite the PSG owner’s comments, former United defender Blanc, 49, was linked to the Old Trafford hotseat almost as soon as rumours about Moyes’s sacking started circulating yesterday.

He has guided PSG to the verge of the Ligue 1 title, and lifting the Coupe de la Ligue, but Blanc’s future at the big-spending Paris club has been the subject of speculation since Chelsea’s remarkable Champions League quarter-final comeback.

That two-leg defeat meant that PSG fell at the quarter-final stage for the second season in a row.

Blanc knows Old Trafford, having spent the final two years of his playing career at the club. He retired in 2003.

Reports in France suggest that Blanc will sign an improved deal that will keep him in Paris until 2016.

Signing a new deal would also put to rest speculation linking Arsene Wenger with the PSG post. The Arsenal manager’s contract expires in the summer.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s chosen one Moyes left Old Trafford this morning, 10 months into a six-year deal, with United seventh in the English Premier League, 13 points away from a place in next season’s Champions League; and a shadow of the side that won the title last season by 11 points.

Player-coach Ryan Giggs is expected to take charge of United’s next game at home against Norwich on Saturday.