steken1
Player Valuation: £70m
It's completely true. Players over 30 at United are on year by year rolling contracts.
Scholes, Owen, and Giggs were and are all under the same conditions, and Ferdinand will be when his current contract ends next season. The same happened with Van Der Sar.
Some players (such as Ferdinand) have gone past the 30 mark on a multi year contract but once your contract runs out at United and you are over 30 then tradition is to over you a year by year deal. It's a great way of encouraging older players not to try and get one big fat pay day and then rest on their laurels.
A lot of the older players are as you say.
That said, They are usually tied up until they have little or no transfer value before they are on a rolling contract. This means at lest 33/34. There is always a clause for united to keep them if the play X games so they are always tied in regardless. You can't leave unless they don't want you.