Pressure is growing on Roy Keane to compromise in his demands for a new £40,000 a week pay deal which would make him the biggest earner in Manchester United's history.

With the Irishman showing no sign of retreating in his insistence that he will leave the club at the end of the season rather than settle for less than his asking price, subtle pressure is being applied to precipitate a change of mind. Keane claimed yesterday that he was mulling over Manchester United's final contract offer.

Alex Ferguson is desperate to hang onto the midfielder, and has encouraged the club's board to ease United's rigid pay structure which seems to have hampered negotiations.

But if the Treble winners were to decide to sell the Republic of Ireland midfielder they could move for a quick deal before the Champions League deadline on August 31st.

Keane, speaking to the club's official radio station Century Radio, said: "We reached the end of contract negotiations last Wednesday night and the club have put their final offer to me.

"It isn't an easy decision for me to make. I have to take a lot of things into consideration with it being my last contract.

"I could talk about it all day but there are a lot of private matters involved in it.

"As I've said, a decision will be made, if not by the end of this week definitely by the start of next week. "I won't be hiding anything, I'll just be as honest as I can and when I do make up my mind the Manchester United fans will know first."

While club officials refuse to confirm reports that they are interested in signing Rivaldo as a midfield replacement, neither have they contradicted speculation linking them with the Barcelona based Brazilian.

Barcelona, almost certainly, would expect to be paid £60m for Rivaldo a fee, which if added to his wage bill, would make Keane's demands look positively modest. Even this, however, might not be enough to persuade the Brazilian to uproot his family and move to Manchester.

Martin Edwards, United's chairman who is said to see the Keane contract as pivotal in establishing future pay structures at the club, is understood to have increased his offer for the team captain to stay, to £32,000 a week, an increase of £8000 on his present wage.

Lazio and Inter Milan are among the Italian clubs monitoring the situation but with all the aces in his hand, Keane is in no mood to rush to an early decision.

Fortified by the knowledge that under the terms of the Bosman ruling he can leave old Trafford as a free agent when his current contract expires at the end of the season, he still commands the high ground. Meanwhile, Liverpool's German midfielder Dietmar Hamann expects to miss Germany's next two European Championship qualifying games against Finland and Northern Ireland next month.

Hamann injured his right ankle against Sheffield Wednesday and could be out for up to six weeks which would rule him out of the two Euro games on September 4th and September 8th.