Rio will be only summer buy - Kenyon

Rio Ferdinand will mark the beginning and end of Manchester United’s summer spending, according to chief executive Peter Kenyon.

Kenyon claims Ferdinand, who yesterday completed his British record £30m (€47.2m) move from Leeds, will be Sir Alex Ferguson’s only buy.

Even though three first-team players have left since the end of last season, Kenyon feels Ferguson’s squad is still big enough.

‘‘We’re not looking for new players,’’ he said. ‘‘We concentrated on what we thought was our single number one target and that was Rio.

‘‘There’s a limit to the squad size you can have. Top players want to play football, they don’t want to sit on benches and have rests.

‘‘We’ve got a squad size which we’re happy with. We’ve got Wes Brown and we’ve got John O’Shea who you would expect to feature more prominently.

‘‘If you look at us we’ve probably got the best midfield of any team probably across Europe.

‘‘We brought in Diego Forlan last season, Ruud van Nistelrooy had a fantastic season and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer keeps on doing what he does so we’re great in every department.

‘‘This was all about bringing in a quality player in defence. We never sat down and said we needed to bring in several players.

‘‘This was about getting the right one and in Rio we have the right one. That really was what the game plan was from day one.’’

United are confident Ferdinand, whose fee could eventually rise to £33.3m (€52.4m) depending on how well the Reds do over the length of his five-year contract, will shore up a defence that leaked 45 league goals last season.

Kenyon said: ‘‘The decision was taken that we needed to strengthen the defence. Good central defenders are few and far between so it was a pretty small list and top of that list was Rio.

‘‘He’s a great signing for Manchester United. At 23 he’s proved he’s capable of playing on the world stage and he came through the World Cup with flying colours.

‘‘Fundamentally what we were looking for was a player who could play on that level every week, particularly with the Champions League in mind, and he has shown that maturity and ability.’’

Ferdinand was due to have a fitness assessment today and United hope to make up for the couple of days of pre-season training he has lost because of the wrangling over his transfer in order for him to make his debut in the Amsterdam Tournament at the start of next month.

While no more players may be coming into Old Trafford, Dwight Yorke still appears to be heading out, even though Blackburn are refusing to meet United’s asking price.

Kenyon claims a deal for the out-of-favour striker, who is out of contract next summer, could still be struck.

‘‘Blackburn and ourselves have been having discussions and will continue to have discussions,’’ he said.

‘‘If we reach a deal we will do it. The gap between us is not as big as has been reported and we have both moved. Everything is possible.’’

:: Lazio president Sergio Cragnotti has denied that Juan Pablo Sorin is moving to Manchester United.

Reports in Italy claim that the centre-back was about to move to Old Trafford as a final payment for the transfer of Dutch defender Jaap Stam.

But Cragnotti said: ‘‘Sorin won’t move from Lazio. There’s no discussion about that with Manchester United.’’