He may be across the other side of the pond, but the script remains the same.

In the face of losing their three-year hold on the Premier League title and noisy neighbours City threatening not just to buy the neighbourhood but the entire kingdom, Sir Alex Ferguson remains adamant that United’s dominance will continue.

What’s more, even at the ripe old age of 68, he insists he will be the man at the helm to steer the club through arguably the most uncertain times since his reign began in 1986.

He is steadfastly backing the Glazers’ controversial and debt-laden rule while lauding the, as yet, unproven talent emerging through the ranks at Old Trafford. Ferguson is facing the sternest test of United’s supremacy in typical head-on fashion.

The club’s enduring global appeal has only been endorsed by their pre-season US tour.

And Ferguson has used the States as a platform to issue a resounding message to United’s rivals – and their own supporters – that rather than being a power in decline, they will remain a force to be reckoned with, even if they must now work within parameters considered unpalatable to the average fan.

Whether his claims of a lack of value in the transfer market are the real reason behind his relatively modest spending over the past 12 months, or merely a smokescreen disguising deeper economical concerns at Old Trafford, it is an undeniable fact that the millions being lavished by City have changed the landscape of football globally.

With or without the Glazers, United would not be able to keep pace with the Eastlands Sheikh-up since the blue half of Manchester became awash with Abu Dhabi riches.

Ferguson has seen one-time targets David Silva and Yaya Toure succumb to the financial pull of City while another player he has coveted, Mario Balotelli, looks soon to follow suit.

As such he has been forced to alter his horizons – with the signings of Chris Smalling and Javier Hernandez likely to be typical of United’s transfer policy in the foreseeable future, even if substantial money may yet be spent on a Mesut Ozil or Karim Benzema before the summer is out.

It might not be what disillusioned United supporters want to hear – or even believe – but their manager is adamant that with him at the helm, along with a crop of young talent like Federico Macheda, Danny Welbeck and the Da Silva twins, United will continue to challenge at the top of the Premier League and in Europe, regardless of City’s spending.

Success

“What you have to do is maintain the success of the club and no matter when I quit, the club is in good hands,” he said. “There is no need for a complete overhaul of the playing squad.

“In the squad I’ve got at the moment, there are probably 12 players who are 21 and under, which is a fantastic average of age and the future should be pretty secure with them.”

Given that even with a crippling list of injuries last season – including the loss of Wayne Rooney at a crucial stage of the title run-in – United still only finished a point behind champions, Chelsea, Ferguson’s faith in his squad is not without merit.

In Hernandez he has signed one of the stars of the World Cup – at a cut-price fee of around £9m – while the long-term futures of Rooney and Nemanja Vidic look secure.

But that will not quell supporter unrest  with fans still furious over the lack of top class replacements for Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez who departed last summer.

They fear Ferguson’s hands have been tied by the massive debt incurred by the Glazers to buy out the club – and even if initial concerns that United would be stripped of their assets have yet to bear out, a slow decline due to lack of major investment in the squad is seen as little better on the terraces.

Even if Ferguson maintains that he has the full financial backing of the club’s owners, his reticence to spend heavily could lie with the implications of another big money flop, given United’s debts of around £700m.

Since 2007, he has seen major signings, Anderson, Owen Hargreaves and Dimitar Berbatov all fail to live up to their combined price tags of around £65m.

Nani looked like adding to that list of flops, until an impressive second half of last season, while £7m Zoran Tosic was another costly failure. Despite the calls from supporters for ‘marquee’ signings, Ferguson believes the amount of money spent on players in the modern sits uncomfortably with the average fan.

“I think it affects supporters’ mentality how we handle that,” he said. “The enormous amounts of money they pay – not just for transfer fees but salaries – I don’t think it rests easy with supporters but we are in such a competitive world that we are hamstrung with relation to the borders people will stretch to get the best players.

“Over the years we’ve bought players for high transfer fees - Berbatov for£30m, Rio Ferdinand for £28m, Juan Sebastien Veron £24m and Wayne Rooney for £25m – but we try to equate how we will get the proper value before we do it.

“We take quite a good view now and say, ‘Let’s look at our own young players. Have they got the ability and how much do we trust them? Do we see a top player in them?’

“I think the position we are in now when I see some of the values – £40m and £30m for players – we have to assess our own players first and we’re not bad.

“We’ve got good young players who have come through the system, who understand the club and we can build through that.”

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