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United storm ahead in transfer market
Jon Carter

On the day that Ryan Giggs decided to retire from international football, Manchester United announced that they will sign two of the world's best young players. The irony won't be lost on those in the red half of Manchester as the rest of the Premiership have been left stunned while United blaze ahead in this summer's transfer market.

Tottenham may have beaten the Red Devils to the signing of young Welsh full-back Gareth Bale, but it is a combined fee of around £30million for the duo from Portugal that has tongues wagging before the first day of June has even arrived.

It is not known whether Bale, a snip at £5million (although rising to £10million with a series of contract add-ons), was ever a real target for Sir Alex Ferguson, or just the subject of idle tabloid tattle. But Fergie's double transfer coup from the Portuguese league certainly suggests that if he had been, we certainly wouldn't have known about it.

Like Tevez and Mascherano's arrival at West Ham back in August, United's interest in the pair has been kept quiet.

Anderson is a player who has been coveted by the world's best teams. At 19 years old, the Brazilian is widely regarded to be one of the players of the future. He impressed while on international duty with Brazil in the 2005 U-17 World Cup and is already called 'the next Ronaldinho' in Portugal.

Scouted by Barcelona and praised by Arsene Wenger after Arsenal met FC Porto in the Champions League in September, the midfield starlet has certainly been raising eyebrows. Although nobody would have thought they would have been those at Old Trafford.

Not that Ferguson doesn't have an eye for a good player, far from it, but having spent £18million on Michael Carrick and a further £17million on the impending arrival of Owen Hargreaves, central midfield was not a position he needed to fill.

Still, United have shown a propensity for splashing out cash in order to secure the world's leading young players. Wayne Rooney cost nearly £30million, Rio Ferdinand a similar amount and Cristiano Ronaldo can be labelled a bargain at a measly £12million.

In Portuguese youngster Nani, United have the next addition to this list, at a reported £17million. The winger is virtually a carbon copy of Ronaldo and came from the same club, Sporting Lisbon.

But unlike Ronaldo, Nani had been attracting the gaze of Premiership clubs, notably Tottenham and it was widely expected that he would move to White Hart Lane. Spurs were reportedly quoted a £12million price tag, but reports also emerged that his buy-out clause was in the region of £17.5million.

The player himself showed a desire to join the club back at the start of May, telling the Daily Mirror: 'I would only leave Portugal for a club like United.' But as with all tabloid talk over the summer, it was hard to know what to believe.

Confirmation, of course, came with the news that United's assistant Carlos Queiroz and Red Devils chief executive David Gill, were in Lisbon to agree a deal. Even then, as the news broke, first it was Anderson who was announced, with Nani added later on. As if the duo had gone to Portugal with a shopping list and found the prospect of buying the winger too good to refuse.

Which of these starlets was the priority remains to be seen, but Ferguson would never squander money on players without doing his homework first. Certainly we can take the news that United were going to buy 'three new players', as read. With Owen Hargreaves on his way on July 1, that quota has now been filled.

What may come further along in the transfer window, is more spending, with a striker and a defender top of the list. Fernando Torres, Dimitar Berbatov and Klaas Jan-Huntelaar have all been linked to Old Trafford, but with the cost of his summer arrivals almost topping £50million already, Ferguson will have to be careful.

A world-class striker would not come cheap, while the manager would have to let one of his fringe defenders go before signing a new one. Gabriel Heinze has attracted a lot of interest from Europe, notably in the form of Real Madrid, and would command a fee of at least £5million if he were to decide his future lay elsewhere.

In fact, United already have a well-stocked defence with Wes Brown and Mikael Silvestre seemingly happy to play second fiddle to Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic while Northern Irish youngster Jonny Evans is pushing for a first-team place after impressing on loan at Sunderland. Spaniard Gerard Pique has spent the season on loan at Real Zaragoza and is said, by some sources, to have been promised a role at Old Trafford next season.

But players are likely to go, especially in midfield. Darren Fletcher and Kieran Richardson look prime candidates, although not, as some would expect, Ryan Giggs or Paul Scholes. The two new signings would replace them nicely in terms of positioning, but neither of Ferguson's stalwarts are ready to give up the ghost just yet.

In contrast, if anything can be gleaned from their respective decisions to retire from international football, it is that they are hungry for domestic success, particularly in the Champions League. Nominations for the PFA Player of the Year suggest that their skills on the pitch have not deteriorated with age and both were instrumental in the club's title win.

United may have spent a lot of money on two young starlets to improve their squad for next season, with possibly more to come, but the experience that the likes of Giggs and Scholes can pass on in training is something that money can't buy.

Cheerz
AC