Ferguson has never been afraid to spend big money on key players.
The arrivals of Juan Sebastian Veron and Rio Ferdinand to Old Trafford broke previous British transfer records and only this summer he splashed out £30.75million on Dimitar Berbatov.
But even the Manchester United boss has been taken aback by City's offer.
It is not the team doing the buying that has caught him off guard, or even the fact AC Milan appear willing to sell.
For Ferguson, it is the sheer enormity of the sum, well over double the most any club has paid for a player in the history of the game - Zinedine Zidane's move from Juventus to Real Madrid for £46million in 2001 - that has left him gob-smacked.
"I find it hard to get my head round to be honest," he said.
"It is amazing.
"Football is football. From time to time you get shocks and surprises. This is surprising everyone."
Ferguson is not convinced the staggering deal would have a knock-on effect throughout the game if it goes through.
United midfielder Michael Carrick, who left Tottenham for a not inconsiderable £18.6million in 2006, has no view on whether lavishing such sums are morally right or wrong.
However, it is clearly a move that has got the United dressing room buzzing, with the England midfielder left as stunned as his manager.
"That amount of money being bandied about is a bit of a shock really," he conceded.
"When Manchester City were taken over we were told they had a lot of money to spend and big names were being talked about.
"But for it to be so much over the top is pretty mad really."
Business
While AC Milan seem happy to do business, City owner Sheikh Mansour knows there is a lot of negotiating to do with Kaka and his advisers before the Brazilian commits his future to Eastlands.
A key meeting between the Blues and Kaka's father has been pencilled in for next week, after which the picture will become clearer.
Carrick is not certain Kaka will eventually sign. But the former West Ham star would be delighted to see the former world footballer of the year in the Premier League, even if it was in the shirt of United's local rivals.
"We want the best players in this league and he is definitely one of them," said Carrick.
"It will be interesting to see what happens."
Wigan manager Steve Bruce has pointed to the City offer for Kaka as another warning that football is in danger of losing touch with the man in the street.
With City said to be prepared to offer AC Milan striker Kaka £500,000 a week and ticket prices continuing to rise while the economy heads in the other direction, Bruce fears for the future of the national game.
Bruce, who takes his side to Eastlands tomorrow, is also worried the move could drive up player costs to unsustainable levels.
He said: "The beauty of our game is that it means more to the average man in the street than anybody. I know the average man in the street now finds it very difficult to find £40-45 to go and watch a game.
"When a big player is out there it does inflate your prices. You do worry about it and wonder if things could go belly up."
Bruce added: "We are all staggered by the news. It is quite unbelievable when you are talking about a credit crunch throughout the world. But it just shows you what this Premier League is all about.
"I think this year people thought the situation with finances would be a little bit more sensible.
"But then along come the owners of Manchester City who want to have the best players in world at their club."
However, Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce, who last week rejected a £16million bid from City for striker Roque Santa Cruz, believes the massive investment City are prepared to make could pay off if they break into the Premier League's top four.
"There is only Manchester City that can spend it (£100million on one player)," he said.
"Manchester United can't, Liverpool can't, Chelsea can't now by the looks of it.
"The last few years it was (Chelsea's billionaire owner) Roman Abramovich and now we have got another one.
"If there is going to be more to follow then only time will tell if spending that sort of money is the right thing to do.
"If Manchester City end up challenging the big four then from their point of view it will be." Tweet
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What planet do these people actually live on? Bruce, typically another ex Red or Fergie cheerleader saying the game not for the man in street now. I have news for you Bruce its not been for years. One culprit being your hero Fergie! paying inflated prices has always been United. Ferdinand, Veron, what a waste that was. And others, typical being Carrick, 18 million for an oridnary player that cannot even command a regular place, please.
I dont agree with city doing this as you know if you have any sense, that the prices will go up dramtically to watch city now.
Dont be fooled into thinking these Arabs are doing this for fun! They want money out of this and so did Chelsea, check Chelsea prices to wacth that boring team of superstars.
lets get a reality check here.
Prices paid for transfers has been obscene since the first 1 million was paid out for a player, especially to the leeches of the game, the agents. With the number of British clubs struggling to make ends meet, I think a percentage of all transfers should be paid into a fund to help these unfortunates. Also players earning more than 1 million pounds a year should also pay a sports tax to help all sports survive. Give something back to the people forking out 40 to 50 quid a game. Nothing against Ronaldo but the value of the car he crashed last week would keep some lower clubs running for a couple of seasons.
Hold the back page – a £107m bid for Kaká by Manchester City is out of order because it is just ‘ridiculous’. Just as their £32.5m capture of Robinho was. And just how Chelsea’s £30.8m Shevchenko deal and Manchester United’s £30.75m transfer of Berbatov wasn’t. You know, I can understand that people think £107m is a bit much, but certainly not £32.5m, when others have paid slightly less – and one of them was for a total flop.
But, first off, the transfer fee for Kaká (and he’s not even signed a contract yet, so it may never go through) is coming out of Sheikh Mansour’s pocket. It is his money and his right to spend it how he wishes, so if he decides he wants to allow Mark Hughes to spend a nine-figure sum on a Brazilian player – who’s not half bad, in fairness – then he can do, just as you have the right to spend your own money on football shirts, items on eBay, newspapers, DVDs that you never take out of the cellophane or Sky TV.
Saying that you could build x number of hospitals or y number of schools is irrelevant. It’s privately owned money – your savings don’t go towards local amenities and so neither does Sheikh Mansour’s. Your tax does. And so does Sheik Mansour’s.
The fact that he has decided to do it in such a crunchy credit world seems to have upset a lot of people. But I don’t see their problem – he’s spending his money how he chooses, just as everybody else is. He’s just got the good fortune to have more money than most of the people on the planet. That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t buy who or what he wants for a price he deems to be reasonable.
The real question is, why should City curb their spending, when no such limits have been placed on any other football club? The top four have been spending what they have liked for years, but now it’s somebody else’s turn, they don’t seem to like it.
Moving on to Kaká’s proposed wage: Reports have estimated it to be either £100,000 p/w or £500,000 p/w, depending on who you believe. And this has sent the majority of non-City supporting members of the public into outrage – how can he earn such a wage while people who do much more important jobs and save lives earn less? It’s a sentiment I agree with, but it’s the way of football. It’s not City’s fault football as a whole spends so much on wages and it’s certainly not Kaká’s fault, either. If you want to stop City paying him up to £500,000 p/w, then you have to stop Manchester United paying Ronaldo £119,000 p/w – unless it’s ok for them to do that because they’re in the top four?
The problem is that every footballer earns too much, just as film stars and pop singers do. Actors generally get paid more than footballers and they just pretend to be a character doing something else. But they’re only human, and if somebody offered you £500,000 p/w to do a job you loved doing, would you turn it down? Did anybody complain when it was reported David Beckham would be earning something in the region of £500,000 p/w at LA Galaxy?
And bear in mind here that if Kaká does sign for such a weekly wage, he would have to live in England to play for City. He would, therefore, have to pay tax on his earnings. Lewis Hamilton has earned a hell of a lot of money from his Formula One career thus far, yet there’s been no criticism of him for moving to Switzerland – where he claimed he’d be less hounded by the press, but, oddly, he’d be able to reap numerous tax benefits (to the tune of roughly £4m p/a). Kaká would pay up to £10.3m tax p/a, just to put that into perspective.
And that’s on money that currently isn’t being taxed.
Keanu Reaves earned roughly £22.3m for the final Matrix film (15% of the gross plus $12m). That film will have been less work for him that it would be for Kaká (assuming he’s not facing any long injuries and plays most, if not all, of City’s matches for 2009), who would earn roughly £16m for the year, minus tax.
Blaming City for the current state of footballers’ wages is wrong. If the owner has the money, he can offer those wages; if he doesn’t, he can’t – it’s as simple as that. It’s the way football was working before City and the way it will work after City. All they have done is raise the bar, that so many others, mainly the top four as far as Britain is concerned, had dominated.
And now they can’t have their own way, they’ve gone for a little sulk.
If zidane was worth 46 mil 8 years ago then kaka is worth 100 now. can the pictgure on this post be changed from taggart to a muppet, sorry same thing leave it as it is
Dont think Fergie is mad at us. The top teams have been doing the same thing for awhile, we just now going to the auction house with the big boys. Go Blues go..
Please don't confuse legality with morality. The tranfer fees/wages etc have displayed both arrogance and lack of sensitvity for years and I would acknowledge that United are as guilty as anyone.
The size of this fee, plus the credit crunch have merely highlighted an existing issue. Football is living in a financial bubble and it will burst when the TV revenues dry up - the question is which clubs will survive, those with large debts and those that are the "toys" of the rich are equally vulnerable.
norge 16/01/2009 at 23:15 , A great post.
Brilliant post, norge! Just about sums it up perfectly. Send a copy to Paul Merson!