Gill: We’ll fund signings

MANCHESTER UNITED chief executive David Gill has repeated that Alex Ferguson will have money to spend on new signings in the summer.

The mammoth debts built up by the Glazer family at Old Trafford have led to suggestions Ferguson is working on a reduced transfer budget, despite last year’s £80 million sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid.

Ferguson has repeatedly stated that he still has a large bulk of that cash available for new players and has already agreed deals for Chris Smalling and Javier Hernandez to join United next season.

Gill has confirmed that Ferguson is also likely to have further funds at his disposal, but insists the club will not discuss their targets after being linked with the likes of Karim Benzema and Luka Modric.

“I can look you in the eye and tell you straight that we have the transfer funds available to the manager,” said Gill. “Targets have been discussed already, as you’d expect, but it’s not our style to talk about names and it never will be.”

Ferguson, meanwhile, said the only way he would fork out huge sums of money would be to sign Ronaldo again.

He said the inflated price of players in the modern transfer market does not provide a reflection of their true value and he would not spend over the odds in the close season.

“It’s not my way to buy a player for £60m,” said Ferguson. “There’s no point pursuing that argument. I would not contemplate signing a player for that amount.”

Asked if he would pay £60m for Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, he answered: “No. I’d pay £60m to take Cristiano Ronaldo back. But that’s it.”