Schmeichel's form has been unusually patchy for United in recent months, with some glaring mistakes sprinkled among the more familiar inspirational saves.

But the Danish veteran has had no shortage of offers after announcing his intention to quit Old Trafford in a bid to scale down the number of matches he has to play each season.

Clubs queue up

His agent Ole Frederiksen said: "The interest for Peter has been far larger even than we had dreamed it might be.

"Inquiries have come, in particular, from clubs in the southern part of Europe - Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.

"Now we are getting ready to look at the clubs which have declared an interest, but that will not happen until early January.

"Peter has been treated extremely fairly by United from the point at which he made his decision to try a career change in a new and warmer country.

"Therefore we will follow the rules and not start talking to potential new clubs until we are allowed to, which is this weekend," he told the Daily Mail.

Homecoming delayed

Brondby had emerged as favourites to sign Schmeichel, but the 35-year-old hinted that he would prefer not to return to his native land just yet.

He said: "I have my 12-year-old son Kaspar to think about and it would be good for him to learn another language before we return home."