Premiership: Ferguson - United can’t compete with Real

Sir Alex Ferguson claims Manchester United will always lose out to Real Madrid in the race to sign the world’s best players.

The Spanish giants yesterday completed the signing of French playmaker Zinedine Zidane from Juventus for a world-record fee of around £45m.

And although Ferguson has already splashed out a British record £19m to bring Dutch hitman Ruud van Nistelrooy to Old Trafford and Argentinian star Juan Sebastian Veron is also close to a near-£22m move, the United boss insists his club can never hope to compete with the amount of money Real are prepared to spend.

‘‘I think we have come to accept that we can’t compete with the buying mentality of clubs like Real,’’ said Ferguson.

‘‘Their situation is altogether unusual. They were £160m in debt when their town council go and buy their training ground for £210m and then build them a new one.

‘‘It is the local council’s way of saying they can’t afford Real to go bankrupt.’’

He said: ‘‘It doesn’t matter how ambitious I am, or the club. You can’t cope with that sort of mentality.’’