Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson has backed his club
to cope without Cristiano Ronaldo, who he feels may make Real
Madrid
unbalanced.
United sold Ronaldo to Real for £80million earlier this summer,
with the Spanish giants also spending huge sums to bring in Kaka
from AC Milan and Karim Benzema from Lyon.
The spending was prompted by the re-election of Florentino Perez
as Real president. He was criticised in his first term for building
a side containing sublime talent in some areas but lacking quality
and experience in others, particularly in defence.
Ferguson sees a similar pattern emerging again, a view shared by
his Milan counterpart Leonardo.
"I understand all too well that losing 26 goals from a winger is
hard to replace, but we will try because it is the nature of our
club that the expectations never change whether you have Ronaldo or
(Antonio) Valencia," Ferguson said.
"I would not like to be (Real coach Manuel) Pellegrini picking
his teams."
Ferguson joked: "I told Ronaldo when he left us that they will
probably be playing him at centre-half; I don't think they have
one.
"It is difficult with all their individuals to pick the right
balance and that is part of it."
Leonardo, whose Milan side are involved alongside United in the
four-team Audi Cup in Munich, must also cope without Kaka but is
also hoping Real's 'galacticos' policy will come unstuck.
Talking about the first term under Perez, he said: "They did not
win so much in the end. It is not easy to construct a team with
talented individuals.
"To create a team, you need something more and we hope Real
Madrid don't have that. Sometimes you need more than talent to
win."
A small fraction of the Ronaldo transfer fee was reinvested to
sign Valencia from Wigan, and he is expected to feature against
Boca Juniors on Wednesday.
Ferguson has attempted to play down expectations surrounding the
Ecuador star, who he believes will need time to settle in at Old
Trafford.
"He has the potential and we hope he will develop and will
become a star of tomorrow," he said.
"Valencia is a player we watched throughout last season.
"He is young, athletic, has good power and I think, at the age
of 23, he can develop at our club."
United face Boca Juniors on Wednesday evening before playing
either Bayern Munich or AC Milan in Thursday's final or third-place
play-off.
Ferguson added that he had done his homework on Wednesday's
South American opponents via late-night television.
"If you can't sleep at three in the morning in England, then you
can see Boca," he said. "And I don't sleep at three so I have seen
them many times.
"They are one of the best teams in South America. We had a very
competitive game with them at Old Trafford three years ago."