Ferguson unable to indulge in flight of fancy
Posted in News on Wednesday July 12th, 2006 9:17am
Oliver Kay in The Times:
The failure to add to the squad has fuelled disquiet among United fans, who have long been sceptical about the club’s prospects of flourishing under the ownership of the Glazer family. The party line is that unlimited funds are available to Ferguson to ensure that United can challenge Chelsea for supremacy in the Barclays Premiership, but for all the club’s interest in players such as Mahamadou Diarra and Fernando Torres, few of the arrivals since last summer - Edwin van der Sar, Park Ji Sung, Ben Foster, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra - have stirred Old Trafford passions.
A sense of anxiety has not been helped by revelations, made in The Times last month, that the Glazers are looking for ways to ease interest bills by refinancing the £540 million debt taken on when they bought the club last year. There are funds in place for Ferguson to add to the squad but not enough, it seems, for him to challenge at the top end of the market.
A proposed bid to sign Torres from Atlético Madrid cannot progress until Ruud van Nistelrooy has been sold - and even then there are concerns that the Spain forward may prove out of United’s range - while hopes of signing Diarra, of Lyons, or Javier Mascherano, of Corinthians, to play alongside Carrick have been put on hold indefinitely as the midfield players join the throng waiting for offers from Real Madrid.
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