Sir Alex's Midfield Hunt

Sir Alex Ferguson is confident United will cope with the loss of Paul Scholes, either by spending in the transfer market or promoting a young talent from within.

Although Scholes is essentially irreplaceable, the boss is convinced he'll come up with the answers as he prepares to get the pre-season campaign underway in the United States.

Having ruled out the prospect of Arsenal's Samir Nasri coming to Old Trafford, much of the speculation in recent days has focused on Wesley Sneijder of Inter Milan with Chelsea bidding for Spurs playmaker Luka Modric.

While keeping his cards close to his chest, Sir Alex outlined his thoughts in detail at a press conference in Boston.

"We try to look ahead, we try to make sure we have an influx of young players coming through to replace the older players," he explained. "It's obvious that for the last few years we've been well aware of the need to replace Ryan Giggs. We're fortunate he's managed to carry on and still perform the way he does. And with Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Edwin van der Sar leaving, we were well aware that we were going to have to replace them at some point.

"So the work we've done in the last few years has been centred around that and trying to make sure we still have the quality in the squad to carry on the success. The big problem, of course, is how do you replace somebody like Paul Scholes? It's very, very difficult.

"If you bracket four of the best midfield players in the world, Scholes would be there along with Xavi and [Andres] Iniesta and then you take your pick from a few others. In my mind, he's certainly one of the top four players in the world. It's a loss.

"How will we overcome it? Maybe the next few weeks will help us in that respect. As they often do at Manchester United, maybe somebody will emerge out of the youth team or one of the young players emerges, and then we carry on.

"[Is the spending over?] It would be impossible to get another Paul Scholes, but if we can get a player along similiar lines in terms of the quality of his passing and vision, then yes, we'd have to do something."

United have Tom Cleverley, Matty James and Danny Drinkwater back in the fold after loan stints last season while the FA Youth Cup-winning midfield trio of Ravel Morrison, Paul Pogba and Ryan Tunnicliffe, who has been farmed out to Peterborough, are all highly regarded at the club.