Manchester United may be awash with funds from the
£80million sale of Cristiano Ronaldo, but they will not be tempted
into buying “mercenary” players to replace him, a representative
for the Glazer family, the club’s American owners, has
warned.
As Manchester City, United’s neighbours, and Real Madrid, who
signed Ronaldo, have spent outrageously in the summer transfer
market, United’s most expensive outlay has been on Antonio
Valencia, the Ecuador winger, who cost £18million from Wigan
Athletic.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, has maintained that his
close-season recruiting is over and Tehsin Nayani, a Glazer
representative on the club’s tour to the Far East, has stressed
that such a relatively frugal approach will remain at Old
Trafford.
Nayani said: “The delay [in signings] is because the manager has
not been able to locate the players that believes fit the
Manchester United mindset; ones that are motivated to play for
United. You don’t want mercenaries - to pay over the odds for
players not willing to give their all for the club.”
United’s finances are healthy despite the credit crunch, Nayani
revealed, and Ferguson could spend extravagantly on the right
player. “Our operating profits are climbing and we continue to
secure significant sponsorship deals,” Nayani said. “On a normal
business level, United is in a very strong position and, so far,
unaffected by the downturn.
“It would be foolish to say there would be no impact, period,
because you never know what’s going to happen down the line. But
our season-ticket sales stand up to comparisons in previous years.
I’ve been saying that one should expect an impact on our corporate
sales, but every club is faced with that. Having said that, the
manager has a significant amount of money to invest if he wants
to.
“We do have a debt to service and carry a significant amount of
debt but our interest payments are around £43.3million a year,
while our operating profit was £80million, topped by an extra
£25million from transfer profits. So we are talking about a net
amount of about £60million.
“That's cash that can be reinvested in the squad, doing up the
toilets or new carpets. The point is, there is money coming into
United. One thing that is certain, because of globalisation and the
growing middle classes in India and the Far East, is that the
appeal of football is set to grow. We are part of that story.”
After defeating a Malaysian XI 3-2 and 2-0 in Kuala Lumpur,
United have moved on to South Korea for the third leg of their
four-match tour. They play Seoul here on Friday night, with Dimitar
Berbatov aware that he has to improve on his return of 14 goals
from 42 appearances last season with Ronaldo gone.
“I think I can do more,” the Bulgaria striker said. “It's always
beneficial to have a good pre-season. I'm here to score goals.”