Sir Alex Ferguson plans to sign one more player for Manchester United

Ferguson unveiled his two close-season recruits, Shinji Kagawa and Crewe’s Nick Powell, yesterday and confirmed both men will be part of United’s squad for their summer tour of South Africa and China when they leave Manchester on Monday.

Much is expected of Kagawa in particular following his £17million arrival from German double winners Borussia Dortmund, especially now Ferguson has confirmed he expects the Japan star to bring a much-needed creative element to his team.

However, now the European Championships are over and the transfer market is beginning to crank up a couple of gears, Ferguson is ready to spend again, despite the club itself admitting last week its massive debt is having an impact at Old Trafford.

“When the European Championships or the World Cup is on, there is always a delay in the transfer industry,” said Ferguson. “Now all that is over we are still trying to get maybe one player in.”

Leighton Baines was the immediate name that sprang to mind given how heavily the Everton defender has been linked with United this summer. However, United’s recent transfer history does not indicate the amount they would have to pay for Baines would be invested in a second-choice left-back, which would place a question mark over the future of Patrice Evra.

Ferguson refused the opportunity to reveal even which position he was looking at, just as a Red Devils official quickly moved on from potential questioning over the Initial Public Offering (IPO), which is intended for launch in the United States in the coming weeks.

It was that move which contained the phrase “our indebtedness could adversely affect our health and competitive position”, which was the first official admission that the massive debt burden the Glazer family have lodged against United could be a problem. That debt currently stands at £423million, although no explanation was ever offered as to how the Glazers managed to pay off £249million of high-interest payment-in-kind notes in 2010.

It means no-one outside the club can be entirely sure whether Ferguson would have to sell more players, in addition to Park Ji-sung, who left for QPR last week, before further purchases can be sanctioned. Certainly the futures of Dimitar Berbatov, whom Ferguson admitted last season he would listen to offers for, and Anderson are uncertain, as well as that of Evra if Baines did join the Old Trafford outfit.

Kagawa should be of more value though, having made a significant contribution to back-to-back Bundesliga triumphs at Dortmund.

“It is a good time for him to come to us,” said Ferguson of the 23-year-old. “He plays behind a striker, is very quick and has a good vision of the game. His goalscoring record for the last two years has been very good.”