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.”