Ferguson: I won’t be ‘stupid’ with Ronaldo cash

ALEX FERGUSON insists he will not be “stupid” with the £80 million (€94m) windfall he received for the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Some Manchester United fans will be alarmed and disappointed with Ferguson’s declaration his summer transfer business over, even though he has only signed three players, the most notable being Michael Owen, who has arrived at Old Trafford on a free transfer.

Ferguson hinted yesterday that the decision not to invest the type of huge sums that have been spent by Real Madrid came from his own desire not to waste money in a massively inflated transfer market.

“I can only placate the fans this way and say I am not going to be stupid,” he said. “We have got that wonderful sum of money from Real Madrid but there was no way we were going to throw it away and put an extra nought on the end of the transfer which I didn’t think was value.”

The chase for Karim Benzema was a case in point.

With Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez both heading for the exit door, Benzema was top of Ferguson’s wish-list.

At 21, and with Champions League experience already under his belt at Lyon, Benzema would have fitted perfectly into Ferguson’s grand plan.

The initial overtures from Old Trafford received a positive response. Then Real Madrid made their move, taking the fee way beyond £30m (€34m), to a sum Ferguson felt was unreasonable.

“People have to try and put their own value on players,” said Ferguson.

“Lyon may think we under-valued him and that is fine but they have done well to get €32m.”

On Madrid’s spending spree Ferguson added: “They did the same some years ago, with Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo. You have to applaud the system they have for controlling the debt, whether it is the bank or whatever it is. They are still able to do it and it puts them in a fantastic position. It is different from us and different from other clubs.”

Owen, meanwhile, is desperate to shrug off the injury-prone tag that Manchester United’s new recruit feels he has unfairly been given.

Although he accepts a broken metatarsal and subsequent cruciate knee ligament injury, caused as a direct result of rushing back to action too quickly in order to appear at the 2006 World Cup, wrecked his first two years at Newcastle, with 33 and 32 appearances to his name in the second half of a four-year deal, Owen, who will wear the number seven shirt previously worn by Ronaldo, believes there is little wrong with his body.

“It does irritate me that so many people have doubts,” he said.

“I played 33 and 32 games in the last two years in a team that was not in Europe and did not go on a decent cup run. Still I was continually labelled injury-prone, which gets up my nose.

“I am 29 and have played over 500 games for club and country. That says it all.”