Sir Alex Ferguson may limit Manchester United signings
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SIGH..
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has said he may not add any more players to his squad this summer.
Ferguson has already signed Mexico's Javier Hernandez from Guadalajara and defender Chris Smalling from Fulham.
But a host of more signings were expected, particularly after chief executive David Gill indicated funds are available to his manager.
"There may be one signing but it's not easy in the present climate. The market is very difficult," said Ferguson.
Speaking alongside Gill at a press conference in New York to promote United's four-game North American tour this summer, Ferguson added: "The structure of our squad is good in terms of ages, the balance, the numbers and there's a lot of good young players.
"Sometimes you have to trust in the development of the last few years and I'm going to stick with that, or most of it."
Gill added: "The Premier League is bringing in squad limits next year of 25 but there will be unlimited under-21s and other rules and we'll be taking all that into consideration."
Ferguson revealed he would not be replacing goalkeeper Ben Foster, instead promoting England Under-21 international Ben Amos to the first-team squad alongside Edwin Van der Sar and Tomasz Kuszczak.
Foster is close to completing a £6m move to Birmingham, having missed out on England's squad for the World Cup in South Africa.
"When we decided to let Ben (Foster) go, we were in the process of letting a good young goalkeeper, Ben Amos, go out on loan," Ferguson said.
"He's in the England Under-21 team but we can only accommodate three goalkeepers. So when the situation with Ben's future at Manchester United came into it and we agreed to let him go, we stopped Ben Amos from going on loan.
"He will now be our third goalkeeper, he's very talented and has a good future ahead of him."
Supporters' groups opposed to the Glazer family's ownership of Manchester United have argued that Ferguson's transfer dealings are being limited by the level of debt carried by the club.
But Gill said: "We're very confident the business model we have in place will ensure the club can continue to compete at the top of football for many years to come."
"Our season ticket sales, renewals, for this upcoming season are on track with previous years. Our executive ticket renewals are on track," he said.
"The owners have been true to their word since they took over the club in 2005. They've brought commercial expertise and commercial benefit to us in a numbers of areas, and we've seen our revenues grow significantly."
The club's summer tour will begin with a training camp in Chicago followed by friendlies against Celtic in Toronto on 16 July, the Philadelphia Union in Philadelphia on 21 July, the Kansas City Wizards in Kansas four days later, and the MLS All-Stars in Houston on 28 July.
Ferguson will give his World Cup players leave of absence from the tour, which will move on to Mexico and a game against Guadalajara, which was agreed as part of the deal to sign 21-year-old forward Hernandez.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8691007.stm