Spending surprises Sir Alex

• sand king

  10 Jul 07, 17:25

  Spending surprises Sir Alex
  
  On the day Sir Alex paraded two new signings and confirmed the Reds were in talks with West Ham over striker Carlos Tevez, the United boss admitted he was surprised other Premier League clubs had so far been thrifty in their summer spending.
  
  Most reports estimate United's transfer bill will surpass the £70m mark if the Reds are successful in luring Tevez away from Upton Park. In contrast, Chelsea have acquired four players on free transfers, while Arsenal have generated more than they've spent after offloading Thierry Henry to Spanish giants Barcelona.
  
  "I thought there would have been more spending," Sir Alex said at yesterday's press conference. "There's a lot of money in the Premier League at the moment, so I expected more [transfer activity]. That's one of the reasons we wanted to do things so quickly [with Nani, Anderson and Hargreaves]. That allowed me to enjoy my holiday – I didn't have to be on the phone to David Gill every two minutes. It was a good bit of business."
  
  The manager also praised the Glazer family, who took over ownership of the club in May 2005.
  
  "They've been nothing but supportive," Sir Alex said. "They've demonstrated that support by giving us a lot of money this summer and I appreciate it. I think it gives us a really strong squad this season, which was maybe our downfall last season when we just didn't have enough of a squad to handle all the competitions we were in.
  
  "Hopefully with the addition of Owen, Nani and Anderson – and another signing soon – we'll have a promising start to the season."
• Patrik

  10 Jul 07, 17:43

  You spend many many does not mean other also must spend many many mah.
  Like Wenger,hardly he spend more than 15 to 20m on a single player(Unless proven to be another Henry) and all he buys are youngsters.
  Benitez?All talk only.
  Mourinho?Now all free transfers.Dun want spend $$$ liao.
• imprezaWRXSTi22B

  11 Jul 07, 00:12

  liverpool did get torres.
• SumOne

  11 Jul 07, 00:15

  Originally posted by Patrik:

  You spend many many does not mean other also must spend many many mah.
  Like Wenger,hardly he spend more than 15 to 20m on a single player(Unless proven to be another Henry) and all he buys are youngsters.
  Benitez?All talk only.
  Mourinho?Now all free transfers.Dun want spend $$$ liao.

  I think what he meant was that with the increased revenue for EPL clubs from next season onwards, he thought the other clubs would increase their spending on players.
  
  He wasn't referring so much as to their spending leading the market, but rather it was anticipation of what was to come because of the increased revenue.