ALEX FERGUSON delivered a withering assessment of Manchester City's new billionaire owners last night when he dismissed as "all talk" the club's aspirations to establish a new Big Five and questioned whether the top players would want to join Robinho at Eastlands, regardless of the vast sums of money on offer.
The Manchester United manager cited Dimitar Berbatov's blunt refusal to entertain the idea of moving to City on transfer deadline day, instead signing at Old Trafford for €38.7 million, and he acknowledged Arsene Wenger's complaints about how the Abu Dhabi United Group have already revealed their "fantasy football" signings, a list that includes Cristiano Ronaldo, Cesc Fabregas and Fernando Torres.
"There's plenty of talk from them but I disregard it really because it is all talk," said Ferguson. "We've seen it before and it will happen again. There's been a lot of talk at City but when it comes down to getting players they may find it difficult. They have talked about getting Cristiano Ronaldo, which is absolutely absurd."
Ferguson rarely resists the temptation to remind everyone at the "Temple of Doom", as he calls the City of Manchester Stadium, about United's dominance and, perhaps being deliberately provocative, he made a comparison between the City and one of the sport's most expensive, and ultimately unsuccessful, experiments.
"History tells you something," he said. "Sunderland, in the 1950s, were relegated despite having the most expensive team in the country - the Bank of England team, with every player bought for astronomical sums. You can buy 11 players and still not have a team."
Ferguson was talking on the day it emerged that City's new owners plan to buy a huge area of land around their stadium to develop other facilities and build a training ground. Garry Cook, City's executive chairman, has spoken about becoming "bigger than Manchester United" and the club also want to branch into financial services, the fashion industry and telecommunications and even open fast-food stores and bring out a range of cars and scooters, the aim being to become "the Virgin of Asia and the world".
Ferguson, however, scoffed at Mark Hughes's claim that City's game against Chelsea today is now bigger than United's at Liverpool.
"I'm going to check what he had for breakfast," he said of the former United player. "Something must have upset him. I said to (United's chief executive) David Gill today, 'Check how many games he (Hughes) played for us against Liverpool, will you?' Liverpool versus United is always the biggest game."
It was put to Ferguson that City regard themselves as potential Champions League winners within three years.
"It depends how much money they are willing to throw at it to get the star players," he responded. "But we're not worried. What you see at Manchester United is not an overnight situation. Our club has been built up over many years. We're not just here for today; we're going to be here for a long time. No matter where the challenge comes from, we'll still be here.
"We play the same way, have the same ambitions, we keep our feet on the ground, everyone has a humble approach and we shouldn't concern ourselves with what other people are planning to do because it doesn't always work.
"Yes, we've bought big players but I don't think you can see a cash cow from Manchester United in a way that could happen elsewhere, the way some clubs are talking."
Guardian Service
