Glazers are 'great' for Manchester United: Sir Alex
Ferguson heaps praise on American owners despite spiralling
debt
Summer signings: Sir Alex Ferguson says the
impending arrivals of Chris Smalling (left) and Javier Hernandez
proves the Glazers are investing in the club
Sir Alex Ferguson has praised the Glazer family,
insisting that
Manchester
United's American owners have
offered him constant financial support throughout their
stewardship.
Many United fans are furious at the burden of debt placed on
their club by their American owners - currently over £700million -
and have been angered further this week by news that interest on
one of the Glazers' loans is set to rise in the summer, costing
them in the region of £67m over the next seven years.
The anti-Glazer sentiment has spawned the green and gold protest
movement against the family, as well as a £1.1bn takeover bid by
supporters' group the Red Knights, who now appear resigned to their
offer's failure.
Yet despite the widespread criticism, Ferguson has praised the
levels of investment the Glazers have poured in, insisting that
much of the spending goes unnoticed as it is focused on bringing
high quality youth players to the club.
'They've been great owners,' he said. 'They have supported me
every way I've asked them.
'There's no other reason to think they haven't supported me. If
you look at any time I've wanted a player they've provided the
money; if you look at what we've done this season - and people
don't recognise this - we've spent over £20million on young
players.
'We've bought Chris Smalling, Mame Diouf and Javier Hernandez.
People don't realise how we're structured and how we see our future
of the club. We've always based it on a nucleus and foundation of
young players developing in the club.'
Despite spiralling costs at both United and across the Premier
League, the demand for instant success and the "greed" of foreign
owners makes Ferguson believe a salary cap will not be introduced
in football any time soon.
'I don't think so,' he said. 'This has been talked about for
many, many years. There must be concern about the level of salaries
in the game.
'But, football is a worldwide game and there's a lot of greed,
particularly with the types of owners that come into the game -
Russians, Americans, Middle-East owners.
'Salary caps will not come into their domain in the sense of the
wealth they have and what they can do with that
wealth.
'They can attract the best players through that wealth and I
just don't see that salary caps come into their area of
thinking.'