Sir Alex Eyeing Transfer Gems

Sir Alex Ferguson has confidence in his scouting network unearthing more gems like Javier Hernandez in the near future.

Big-spending Manchester City have changed the complexion of the transfer market over the past couple of seasons, but the boss does not envy City's buying power as he is satisfied with the groundwork that has gone into ensuring United are the top club in the country.

The structure at Old Trafford means he is relaxed about the threat being posed by United's neighhbours with his long-term plan reaping benefits for all to see. When asked if he would like to share the buying power Mancini enjoys, Sir Alex provided an honest answer.

"You can do a lot of things with money, of course," he explained to journalists before Sunday's derby clash. "There's not a lot you can do with this training ground, though, other than the things we're doing next summer with it, so we're ahead of the game in that respect.

"We have a good training ground, a good youth set-up and we don't need to touch that. We do well scouting abroad to get young players in so there's not a lot we could do with money.

"It could make us even better in some respects but I don't look at money as an important issue for us. If I need a player, the Glazers have been great and have always provided money - and will continue to do so. The difference between us and City is we have bought over a long period and there's a structure here. City are doing it in a quick spell because the Abu Dhabi people took over looking for instant results, which they're getting."

Although obviously not revealing any names, Sir Alex hinted that he's planning more investment in his squad next year with a couple of potential bargains in the frame.

"It's down to good scouting," he reasoned. "We're quite good at these things and we're doing not bad. There's a couple of players at the moment we're looking at who could be the same type as Hernandez, you know, so we do well at that.

"In the modern-day game, it's obvious where the top players are now because there's less and less of them.

"If you make a bad buy, sometimes the scouts have done work on it and you've maybe only seen them a couple of times, then that responsibility will lie on your shoulders very heavily.

"We've made a couple of bad buys ourselves over the years but, in the main, we've done alright."