MANCHESTER United are set to resist moves to entice Roy Keane to follow his former club-mate, Paul Ince into Italian football next season.

A club spokesman professed to be unaware of any moves by the Serie A club, Udinese to lure Keane to Italy with the offer of a £1 million annual salary and said that they expected the Irishman to open talks with them shortly, on the terms of a new contract.

Meanwhile, the Italian club yesterday confirmed a "possible" interest in signing the Corkman. However, they were quick to point out that the Irishman was one of a number of players currently being assessed with a view to next season.

There is still a year to run in Keane's current contract with the Old Trafford club and as such, any proposed move does not come under the "Bosman" free transfer ruling, but in their determination to keep the player, United are prepared to offer him an elaborate new deal on his return from holiday next week.

To succeed, however, they may have to double the player's current annual wage, thought to be in the region of £350,000, making him one of the highest players in Britain.

Apart from Eric Cantona, nobody made a bigger input into the club's FA Cup and Premiership double last season and Alex Ferguson is determined that the partnership will be kept intact.

Udinese, based in the North-Eastern town of Udine just short of the border with Slovenia, have had their transfer market dealings turned upside down by the dramatic finale to last Sunday's European Championship final between Germany and the Czech Republic.

German hero of the night and dual goalscorer, Oliver Bierhoff is currently a Udinese player but his huge contribution to the German win has attracted the attention of financially powerful clubs such as AC Milan, Parma and Napoli in Italy as well as Glasgow Rangers and Blackburn Rovers.

Udinese club spokesman Sigfrido Marcatti told The Irish Times yesterday that, until such time as Bierhoff's future had been settled, it would be impossible for the club to conclude any further transfer deals. A further complication for Udinese concerns their international midfielder Fabio Rossitto, who won a surprise last minute call up to the Italian squad for Euro '96 and who is also currently arousing interest from other Italian first division clubs including Juventus and Internazionale.

"Until the situation regarding Rossitto and Bierhoff is clear, it is very hard to say what our next moves on the market will be Roy Keane is one of a number of players who interest us . . . he is the type of hardworking, hard running midfielder that our coach, Alberto Zaccheroni, likes but we'll have to see because for the time being talk about Keane is merely hypothetical. . . If we're going to have roses, then they'll blossom," said spokesman Marcatti.

Udinese club director Carlo Piazzolla has been handling, the club's market dealings and is believed to have travelled to both Belgium and Ireland last week in pursuit not only of Keane but also of Belgian midfielders, Walem of Anderlecht and Geneaux of Standard Liege. Club spokesman Marcatti confirmed Udinese's interest in the two Belgian players but pointed out that, as in the case of the Irishman, Udinese are far from concluding any deal. For that same reason, Signore Marcatti refused to speculate on the financial details of any potential purchase of Keane.

Udinese have, however, already wrapped up at least three transfer deals in recent weeks including the purchase of Brazilian striker Amoroso from Flamengo, Cremonese goalkeeper Luigi Turciand striker Claudio Clementi from third division Fiorenzuola.

Assuming that Manchester United might prove willing to let Keane go - and frankly, that seems an unlikely assumption - the move to Udinese would present two obvious attractions for Keane. Firstly, he would command an after tax annual salary of at least £700,000, and secondly, he would experience the stimulus of strutting his stuff on arguably the most demanding of all soccer stages.

The downside of a move to Udinese would inevitably concern the limited expectations of a "provincial" club which spends a good deal of time oscillating between Division one and two (Udinese have played three of their last six seasons in the second division), which has never won the Italian league title and whose major seasonal objective is normally first division survival.

Despite its relatively humble expectations, however, Udinese have in the past splashed big on the transfer market, hiring the Brazilian ace Zico in 1982 prior to the club's best ever first division season when they finished sixth in the Serie A table.

At the moment, Udinese have four foreigners on their books - Bierhoff, Russian midfielder Igor Shalimov, Danish defender Thomas Helveg and Polish defender Marek Kozminski. Under Italian Federations rulings, however, clubs can next season sign up an unlimited number of European Union-based players plus, three other players of non-EU origin.

Italy's serie A is to embrace pay-per-view television following the unveiling of a new television package yesterday. The Telepiu pay television channel will enable viewers to watch all 34 first division matches that their teams play in next season.