Fergie under no pressure to sell

Sir Alex Ferguson has insisted that there will be no 'for sale' signs being erected at Old Trafford to finance the capture of Juan Sebastian Veron.  

A £23.5million fee for Lazio's Argentine midfielder would take Manchester United's summer spending to £42.5million.

But Ferguson is adamant that he is under no pressure to recoup some of that outlay by offloading any members of his squad.

"Selling players to balance the books has never been mentioned," Fergie told The Mirror.

"When we have sold, we have done so because we have thought it might be time a player took a new challenge, or we had a good offer, or we were worried about him not being happy at being left out of certain games.

"That happened with Hening Berg, and Teddy Sheringham left for much the same reason."

United will have an embarrassment of midfield riches once Veron joins stars such as Roy Keane, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt.

But reports that one of that bunch will be leaving the club were scuppered by the news that Scholes and Butt have both signed new long-term deals, while talks with Beckham are progressing nicely.

"There has been speculation, but I wouldn't sell Nicky Butt," declared Ferguson. "He had one of his best seasons last year and ended up in the England team.

"I can understand Nicky's concern when he sees all these names being bandied about, but he knows that in the context of the season he'll play a lot of football."

In fact, Butt has welcomed the imminent arrival of Veron.

He told MUTV: "He's definitely a world-class player and it can only be good for the club and the players around him.

"We've already got a lot of good midfielders at the club and hopefully a bigger squad will mean more competition for places and more trophies for us.

"This club is winning things every year and when you are a player that's what you want to be a part of."