It has been a busy summer for Manchester United everywhere but in the transfer market, as manager Sir Alex Ferguson continues to try and convince people that the club’s financial situation is not impacting on the team.

United have added two major signings to the squad which relinquished the EPL title last season, one of whom, 20-year-old Fulham defender Chris Smalling, was arranged during January’s transfer window.

The other signing was Mexican international striker Javier Hernandez for £7m. The 22-year-old impressed for Mexico in the World Cup, scoring twice from the bench.

And “El Chicarito” (“the little pea”) had an immediate impact in a United shirt, scoring a fine goal in United’s 5-2 win over the Major League Soccer All-Stars in Houston this week.

United won three and lost one of the four games on their North American tour, their loss coming against ten-man Kansas City Wizards last Sunday.

 

There was good news on the player front last week when Serb international centre-half Nemanja Vidic agreed a £90,000-per-week deal, a £20,000-per-week improvement on his current contract, which will keep the 28-year-old at Old Trafford until 2014.

Vidic, whose current United deal was due to expire at the end of next season, had reportedly been the target of interest from a number of leading European clubs, including the inevitable Real Madrid.

But United chief executive David Gill blamed the media for the uncertainty over the Serb’s future and noted that stories of his possible departure “didn’t come out of Nemanja’s camp.”

Vidic’s commitment to the Red Devils is especially good news for Ferguson as the long-serving Scot monitors captain Rio Ferdinand’s recovery from the knee ligament injury he suffered on June 4^th, during England’s World Cup preparations in South Africa.

Both Ferguson and Ferdinand estimate that the 28-year-old defender is six weeks from a return to first-team duty.

It had been suggested by club sources that Ferdinand might be ready for United’s season-opener at home to Newcastle on August 16^th.

But Ferdinand himself said this week that he would be “playing again” in six weeks and that “we put dates on these injury comebacks but sometimes the goalposts move a bit, as in this case.”

United last week announced that they were putting 4,000 season tickets up for general sale, the first time in many years that there hasn’t been a waiting list for such tickets.

Supporters’ organisation the Man United Supporters Trust had organised a campaign amongst fans to delay their season-ticket renewals in protest at the continued debt-based ownership of the club by the Florida-based Glazer family.

Other fans’ groups campaigned for a season-ticket boycott. And these campaigns would appear to have had an effect, as United are the only one of the EPL’s so-called “big five” with any significant number of season-tickets still available.

Ferguson, however, criticised United fans for their protests, claiming that the Glazers “have done their job well. I’ve never been refused when I’ve asked for money for a player. I’ve no complaints.”