Ferguson Unconcerned By Manchester City Threat

Sir Alex Ferguson is unconcerned by the threat posed by local rivals Manchester City following their takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment. The Manchester United manager was speaking following a two-day meeting of Europe's top coaches at the Swiss headquarters of European soccer's governing body Uefa.

"I can't be worried," he said of his neighbors' new position as the world's richest club. "We have a good setup ourselves and we've been working to build up the team we've got, so we just have to carry on. There are always challenges in football, some years ago it was Chelsea and some years ago it was Arsenal and wherever the challenge comes from we have to accept it. So it doesn't change anything."

Ferguson also poured scorn on suggestions that City would make a move for Cristiano Ronaldo in the January transfer window. Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim, head of the Abu Dhabi United Group, had suggested that he was prepared to pay £135m for the Portugal winger but, having already seen off the advances from Real Madrid for Ronaldo, Ferguson wasn't prepared to take City's interest too seriously. "They can talk," he said.

While most managers would dream have having the funds that are now at the disposal of Manchester City boss Mark Hughes, Ferguson had some sympathy for his former player. "For a young manager it must be difficult," Ferguson said. "You can't judge it from when I started, it is a completely different world now. I am at the tail-end of my career. I've been through all these change so it doesn't faze me."

Ryan Giggs, was another from the Old Trafford camp to state that it would take more than money for the blue half of Manchester to challenge United's position as one of the world's biggest clubs. "City have the richest owner in the world but I still see United as the biggest club in the world," Giggs told the club's official website. "United have a status and history that it has taken years to build up. It stretches back to the Busby Babes, to players like Sir Bobby Charlton and George Best. It will be very interesting to see what happens at City, but what we have at United is very special."