Wayne Rooney is not interested in casting envious glances at Real Madrid or Manchester City with the England forward confident Manchester United already have the quality at their disposal to land the major prizes.
As another Season begins, striker insists Man U can win trophies despite other clubs' spending spree
Wayne Rooney is not interested in casting envious glances at Real Madrid or Manchester City with the England forward confident Manchester United already have the quality at their disposal to land the major prizes.
The entire football world has been staggered at the enormous amounts of money shelled out by the men controlling the purse strings at the Bernabeu and Eastlands.
It seems like every few days another expensive purchase is being agreed, with Real smashing the world transfer record twice in a single week to land Kaka and then Cristiano Ronaldo.
Benefit for CityCity have profited at United's expense too by acquiring Carlos Tevez, while Matthew Upson is said to be top of the list of alternatives should Joleon Lescott's capture from Everton prove elusive.
Rooney is interested to see how it works out for the big-spending pair. But he is not jealous, or worried about what it means for United.
"There is no element of jealousy at the money City and Real Madrid have been spending," he said.
"If our manager felt he needed to spend he would.
"But I don't believe we need too many changes. We have won the league for the last three seasons and reached the Champions League final twice in a row, so why would we need five or six players?
"I think the manager has probably got it right."
Too expensiveSir Alex Ferguson would almost certainly have bought another experienced striker if the summer prices had not been so prohibitive.
So, for all the promise of Federico Macheda, the Red Devils do appear to be a striker short after Ronaldo's exit.
"We have brought Michael Owen and Antonio Valencia in and they have settled in fairly quickly so it is on us to build on that.
"We might need to play a little bit of a different style to try and keep winning games and trying to win trophies but I am confident we will manage it."
There is nothing revolutionary about the new style, merely a return to a couple of orthodox wide players, with one striker dropping behind another. In theory then, a return to the role Rooney likes best, the one where he has proved so effective for England.
And, for all the furore that surrounds Owen, Dimitar Berbatov would appear to be the man most likely to partner him.
"You can see in training and games during pre-season Dimitar has looked sharper," he said.
"He is a brilliant player. He has so much quality he has got and we all want him to show it."
