Cash-rich City worthy rivals, admits Fergie

MANCHESTER UNITED manager Alex Ferguson has admitted Manchester City are now one of his club’s major competitors.

While Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal plus, briefly, Blackburn and Newcastle, have gone head-to-head with United during Ferguson’s glorious reign, City have been little more than an irritant.

Although they have occasionally managed to get in a pretty fierce blow; the 5-1 win at Maine Road in 1989 was pretty sore, as were the 3-1 and 4-1 defeats immediately before and after the Blues’ move to Eastlands, as a threat to the United honours board they were not even on the same radar screen.