Quote (Slanman @ Aug 5 2012 12:14am)
now we just need some defense
This team would outscore anything
Quote
United to splash £50m on Moura and Van Persie as Glazers send a signal
By Bob Cass PUBLISHED: 22:29, 4 August 2012 | UPDATED: 22:29, 4 August 2012
Manchester United have agreed a £30million deal for Brazil's Lucas Moura - and Sir Alex Ferguson is hoping to take his spending to close on £50m by finally ending the Robin van Persie transfer saga this week.
Lucas Moura will have a medical in Manchester today after travelling down last night from Newcastle for Brazil's Olympic Games quarter-final against Honduras at St James' Park, where he started on the bench.
Ferguson stayed behind to finalise the Moura business when the team left for Norway yesterday for the match against Valerenga.
He will also be on hand to press ahead with Van Persie's move.
Ferguson is optimistic that any further hitches will be overcome for the Holland striker to become a United player before the season's curtain-raiser in a fortnight.
The Arsenal striker, the current Footballer of the Year, has been courted by Manchester City and Inter Milan and his inclusion in the squad's pre-season preparation in Germany has increased speculation that he may even sign a new contract at the Emirates.
But he has not concealed his desire to move to Old Trafford and that is the ace up Ferguson's sleeve.
The United boss will have to compromise on his refusal to comply with the Gunners' £25m demand, with the final figure likely to be about the £20m mark.
United's long-awaited transfer move nails suggestions, denied by Ferguson in an interview in The Mail On Sunday two weeks ago, that his spending budget had been restricted because of the club's massive debts incurred by the Glazer family's takeover.
But there remains a schism between a large faction of United supporters and the American owners, heightened by their bid to pay down some of their £420m debt by raising money on the New York Stock Exchange.
However, Ferguson remains committed to the club in spite of issuing a passionate response last week to speculation that he stood to profit from the Initial Public Offering to sell off 10.2 per cent of the club.
Already Andy Green, a financial analyst and one of the leaders of the anti-Glazer contingent, has been forced to apologise to the 70-year-old Scot after suggesting in his blog that Ferguson's support for the Glazers was based on financial gain.
He said: 'As one of the people suggesting he was likely to participate in the $288m "2012 Equity Incentive Reward Plan" the club are putting in place, I'd like to apologise to Sir Alex for suggesting that personal gain was a motivation in his support for the owners.'
Meanwhile, United will be featuring a number of first-team regulars against Valerenga, with the likes of Wayne Rooney, Patrice Evra and possibly Nemanja Vidic returning for their first pre-season action.
It will lift concerns, expressed by Ferguson on the recent tour of South Africa, that a number of players might not be tuned up for the Premier League kick-off because of their Euro 2012 exertions.
'It's definitely an awkward feeling,' he said. 'It's a different feeling because, although you might think you know what your best starting team is for Everton away in the first game of the season, it's not necessarily going to be that way.
'I'll probably play the ones who are the fittest ones, the ones who've had a proper pre-season. We've got plenty of options but to complete your team you're going to look at the ones who are going to come back in terms of fitness and what they're like.'