Fergie to bolster midfield options
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed he will step up his search to sign a midfielder before the January transfer window closes.
The Red Devils manager had a depleted squad for Wednesday´s Carling Cup semi-final success over Blackburn Rovers, as United´s 2-1 second leg win gave them a 3-2 aggregate victory and booked the club´s place in the final against Wigan Athletic.
Things went from bad to worse when Ryan Giggs came off just 12 minutes into the second leg after pulling up with a hamstring problem - amid fears the Wales international may be sidelined for a lengthy period of time.
Ferguson has already lost the services of Paul Scholes for the rest of the season with blurred vision, while John O´Shea is sidelined between four to six weeks with fractured ribs.
With few options remaining to choose from in midfield, Ferguson admitted that efforts will be made to land a central midfielder before the January transfer window ends next week - even if it is on loan.
"We know it is going to be difficult but ideally, we would like to bring someone in and we are trying our best," said Ferguson.
"The problem is we have to be sure. There is no point just bringing someone in for the sake of it.
"We have to get someone who can add to the squad because it is squad numbers we are light on in midfield.
"But we are exhausting our knowledge of central midfielders in Europe, particularly one we can get on loan.
"It is impossible really because there is only a week left, which is not a lot of time to start negotiating fees and things, but we could just run out of time."
As revealed by skysports.com on Wednesday, Milan´s Swiss international Johann Vogel has been linked as a possible midfield target, but only time will tell if Ferguson can find a suitable short-term solution.
L´arrivée de Vogel en pret devrait se faire, a priori, maintenant que Giggs est blessé.