Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that he will not be making any more summer signings after explaining that he refuses to become involved in a bidding war for Europe’s leading players.
Ferguson believes that the transfer market has ‘caught fire’ this summer with players’ valuations vastly inflated by the spending spree initiated by Real Madrid.
The Scot admitted he would not be held to ransom over certain targets.
It means that United fans will have to make do with the arrivals of Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen, who has been handed the number seven shirt, and Gabriel Obertan as the Premier League champions try to cope without the departed Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.
“It is the end of our business, so all these stories about who we are supposed to be getting – forget it,” he said.
“Everywhere in England and in Europe the players’ values have shot sky high. I don’t think any of the transfers that you see happening are realistic but for some reason it seems to have caught fire this summer.
“It is a very unusual summer and difficult to get value because of that.”
Despite being linked with the likes of Franck Ribery, Fernando Torres, Sergio Aguero and Douglas Costa, Ferguson was confident he already had enough quality in his squad to compete next season.
“That’s always been the case with Manchester United, we have always had to pay a bit extra,” he added.
“But this summer we are not prepared to do that because you have got to understand we have got some very good young players.
“We have a very good squad and there is no need to ever need a jerk reaction to losing Cristiano because we did very well to keep him for six years and it was his moment to leave and we allowed him to do that.
“We shouldn’t panic because of one player leaving. I think we have a very, very good squad with some good young players in all positions.”
The United boss also pointed out that he was keen to bring in someone with the experience of Owen to complement the youthfulness of Obertan and Valencia.
“What I have done is bring in some youth with Gabriel and Antonio and brought in an old codger like Michael just to balance things up,” he joked.
“But experience is vital. Also with Michael you will see the experience he will give us in the penalty box. He will score goals because that is what he has been great at for years and years.
“You always had to be aware of him in his movement of his runs and the most difficult thing was the timing of his runs.
“I used to say that to the players, don’t let him stand you in the penalty box, and he has always had that knack of losing defenders in the final third.”
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