Sir Alex Backs New Look United

Sir Alex Ferguson has been
impressed by Louis van Gaal's
summer recruitment at
Manchester United - and his
continuation of the club's
famous youth policy.

The Reds invested heavily in the
summer, to bring in six major
signings including the club's
record acquisition of Angel Di
Maria for £59.7million. No
stranger to spending landmark
fees himself, the former manager
has been impressed by what the
new boss has done so far in the
transfer market.

When asked about the Di Maria
deal in an exclusive interview for
MUTV, Sir Alex replied: "I think
when you can identify ability like
that needed by Manchester
United, they [the club] have the
resources to do that [deal]. They
are fees I never quite equalled
but nonetheless they were
needing quite a big injection this
year.

"They brought in some good
quality. It was really important
as you need quality at
Manchester United, you need the
best players. It’s the rebuilding
of the team."

Moving on to van Gaal's other
new boys, Sir Alex revealed:
"The signing of [Luke] Shaw was
the one we tried to get when he
was 16 years of age. They
[Southampton] wouldn’t sell
him to us but they always said
we’d be first to know if they ever
did. Of course, Ed Woodward
carried that through and got
him, I think for £30million. He’s
a talented boy, a good footballer
who likes to get forward all the
time.

"[Ander] Herrera played against
us three years ago for [Athletic
Club] Bilbao in the Europa
League. In fairness, they gave us
a right battering at Old Trafford.
He’s a talented young player and
we scouted him quite a lot at
that time. Obviously they tried to
get him last year but it fell
through for some reason or
another. He’s athletic, quite
aggressive actually for a lad who
has not a got a great frame as
he’s quite slim but he gets
around the pitch.

"Rojo, the Argentinian boy, I
watched him at the World Cup, I
thought he did really well for
them and I think he's capable of
playing either left side as a
wing-back if you like or as a
centre-back.