Manchester United will not spend big says Ferguson

Simon Lewis,Pa
Wednesday 19 May 2010 05:22 EDT
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Ferguson says United may make just one new addition
Ferguson says United may make just one new addition (GETTY IMAGES)

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Sir Alex Ferguson may add just one more player to his Manchester United squad this summer as he plots to regain the Barclays Premier League title from Chelsea.

United chief executive David Gill has indicated funds are available to his manager to spend this summer, but Ferguson revealed he is happy with the balance of his squad, which finished a point behind Chelsea in the title race.

The United manager has already signed rising Mexican star Javier Hernandez from Guadalajara and defender Chris Smalling from Fulham, and a raft of new faces had been expected to follow.

But Ferguson will place his trust in his existing squad and his latest crop of youth and reserve players if he is unable to pinpoint any new signings.

Speaking alongside Gill at a press conference in New York to promote United's four-game North American tour this summer, Ferguson said: "In the market today it's very, very difficult and the structure of our squad is good in terms of ages, the balance, the numbers and there's a lot of good young players.

"Sometimes you have to trust in all the development of the last few years and I'm going to stick with that, or most of it.

"There may be one signing and maybe we'd like to get a good player to the club, of course, but it's not easy in the present day climate and I've nothing definite to tell you because we're still assessing whoever's available and the difficulties in terms of who you'd bring in."

Gill added: "Hernandez and Smalling are signings we've already made and the other point to bear in mind is that the Premier League is bringing in squad limits next year of 25, which we clearly operate [in European competitions] but is now coming to the Premier League.

"There will be unlimited under-21s and other rules and we'll be taking all that into consideration."

To that end, Ferguson also revealed he would not be replacing goalkeeper Ben Foster with a new signing, instead promoting England Under-21 international Ben Amos to the first-team squad alongside Edwin Van der Sar and Tomasz Kuszczak.

All three keepers are likely to travel across the Atlantic with the United squad this summer.

The club will have a training camp in Chicago followed by friendlies against Celtic in Toronto on July 16, the Philadelphia Union in Philadelphia on July 21, the Kansas City Wizards in Kansas four days later, and the MLS All-Stars in Houston on July 28.

Ferguson will give his World Cup players leave of absence from the tour, which will move on to Mexico and a game against Guadalajara, which was agreed as part of the deal to sign 21-year-old forward Hernandez.

Depending on Mexico's progress in South Africa, Hernandez is pencilled in to feature in the game.

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