"If Alex Ferguson wants Roy Keane to stay and Roy Keane wants 40 grand a week, then they should give it to him," he said. "We don't think Edwards and the board are supporting the manager as much as they could.". The fans will undoubtedly support him like they did on Wednesday, perhaps even more so, and they will undoubtedly give [United chairman] Martin Edwards stick."Hodgkiss claims the fans are targeting Edwards because they feel he has not done enough to persuade Keane to stay. "The gut feeling among a lot of fans is that it's looking more and more pessimistic," he said "If he was going to stay he would say so before the game. I think everybody knows that."United fans are clearly worried and they will appeal to Keane to stay during the Leeds game, as they did on Wednesday night during the 4-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday.However, despite this show of support, the spokesman for the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association, Lee Hodgkiss, fears the worst.

"We all want Roy to stay and we know what a big player he is for the club," the full-back said "If he did leave he would be impossible to replace. If he does decide to go, Juventus are making the early running in the race for his signature and the Italian club's general manager, Luciano Moggi, has already spoken to Kennedy.Fellow United and Republic of Ireland team-mate Denis Irwin believes it would be impossible to replace Keane. The United captain was due to announce whether he would accept United's new contract offer following today's home game against Leeds. However, Keane's lawyer and adviser, Michael Kennedy, claims the Republic of Ireland midfielder may need longer to make up his mind.

"Roy Keane is considering his position and he will make a decision in the next day or two," Kennedy said. Keane has already delayed his announcement by 24 hours and he is clearly torn between staying at Old Trafford or leaving next summer on a highly- lucrative free transfer when his current deal expires.United have reportedly made a fresh pounds 12million five-year contract offer to Keane, which if true could explain why he may need more time. ROY KEANE could delay a decision on his Manchester United future yet again. "Tennis will always be a big part of my life," she said.Farewell to a champion, page 18. Between them they turned tennis into the second- biggest sport in Germany after football.Graf said her boyfriend, the racing driver Michael Bartels, summed up her retirement best: "He said its like a chick that has to leave the nest sometime," she said. "Well, I want to leave the nest now."She was hoping to make next month's US Open her last Grand Slam, but a strained hamstring made her change her plans.Graf said she now planned to coach three young players, Julia Biffar, Mia Buric and Carolien Raba.

The German said her motivation had disappeared following her latest comeback from injury earlier this year, when she won the French Open and reached the final at Wimbledon. "After that I feel I have nothing left to accomplish," she said "The weeks following Wimbledon weren't easy for me. I'm not having fun any more." Graf, who announced her retirement at a news conference in Heidelberg, near her home town of Bruhl, won 22 Grand Slam singles titles and had more than 100 victories on the WTA Tour. She said she is planning a farewell tour of exhibition matches later this year, and will then concentrate on her marketing company and developing young German talent.Her retirement, along with Boris Becker's earlier this year, leaves a huge void in German sport. You are on a high after something like that, so you always feel confident. But to physically go out and do it, that's another thing."If the sport means anything at all, that sense of endless physical and mental striving has to be at the heart of it.Athletics It's all about people like John Walker..

STEFFI GRAF, who dominated the women's game for a decade before injuries began to hinder her career, announced yesterday that she was retiring from the sport at the age of 30. I ran 19 races prior to my world mile record."While the athletics landscape is changed utterly, however, with World Championships every two years and a tiered system of lucrative grands prix every season, Walker has an instinctive understanding of the essential motivation for ground-breaking athletes such as El Guerrouj."When I became the first man to run under 3.50 for the mile," Walker recalled, "the first thing I thought afterwards was that I could have run faster. We came over from New Zealand and we had to run all the meets to get accommodation, to get food. But he refuses to yearn for what he never had."You can't go back in time," he said.