No More Signing-Fergie

ALEX FERGUSON has announced that Manchester United's pre-season spending is over.

He insisted, “It is the end of our business, so all these stories about who we are supposed to be getting is false.”

Ferguson revealed that with 80 million Euro available to spend following Cristiano Ronaldo's sale to Real Madrid; it seemed sensible to add players like Michael Owen, Antonio Valencia and Gabriel Obertan, but the Scottish has decided his current squad is good enough to challenge for an unprecedented, fourth consecutive Premier League title.

Striker Owen, 29, will take over Ronaldo's No.7 shirt and his place in the attacking line-up will be completed by Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov.

However, the former England forward's arrival will not hamper the emergence of rising stars like Daniel Welbeck and Federico Macheda.

Ferguson added, "They are both young players and young players with ability always get a chance here."

The United boss admits he made a bid for Karim Benzema, only to be rebuffed by the Lyon man, who instead became part of Real Madrid's extraordinary spending spree. He further confirmed, “There are some amazing numbers being talked about, not all of them are realistic. It is very difficult to get value now.” “In a way we benefited through the sale of Ronaldo, but that figure was non-negotiable; I feel we have a good squad which meant there was no need for knee-jerk reactions.”