SYDNEY, Australia, July 19 – Manager David Moyes said Friday he hopes to have some good news about the possibility of Barcelona’s Cesc Fabregas joining Manchester United in the “next day or so”.
Moyes is looking to bring some new players into the squad in his first season in charge at Old Trafford and has been linked with the Spanish international midfielder, while Wayne Rooney’s future remains unresolved.
The English Premier League champions are in Sydney as part of their pre-season tour and are taking on the A-League All Stars on Saturday.
But all interest has been on Moyes’ behind-the-scenes transfer manoeuvrings, with the British press reporting the club has lodged a 26-million-pound ($39 million) bid for midfielder Fabregas, which has yet to be rejected by Spanish champions Barcelona.
“I’m in contact with the chief executive who has been dealing with it and hopefully I’ll know a bit more in the next day or so,” Moyes told a press conference when asked how the Fabregas negotiations were progressing.
“It’s the middle of the night back home in England so I might have a bit more info in the next day or so about how it is going.”
Club chief executive Ed Woodward left the pre-season tour earlier this week to attend what he said was “urgent transfer business”.
Moyes, who has been tight-lipped over the Rooney situation this week, gave little away when he said Friday “the club’s position hasn’t changed on Wayne Rooney, there’s no change to that”.
“Besides that… we’re trying very hard to make some additions to the squad and hopefully there will be some good news in the not too distant future,” he added.
Spicing up the Rooney situation is an offer from new Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho for the England international striker for a reported 10 million pounds ($15.1 million).
United has repeatedly said he is not for sale.
With the new English Premier League season fast approaching, former Everton boss Moyes said the enormity of his new job has sunk in since Manchester United have been feted on their pre-season tour in Asia and Austalia.
“It has sunk in because the amount of supporters we have in Australia, in Thailand, where we have been so far, it is incredible,” he said.
“The enormity of the job sunk in even more yesterday when I was fortunate enough to see an incredible video on Manchester United under Matt Busby, followed by Sir Alex Ferguson.
“So if I didn’t know the enormity before I certainly do now after seeing what those two gentlemen did in the job before me.
“It’s a great job, a fantastic football club, a club that every person in the world knows the name of. I’m very fortunate and privileged that I was given the opportunity to manage and I hope I can come as close as I can to the success of the two gentlemen before me.”
Moyes’s reign at Manchester United began with an embarrassing 1-0 defeat against Thailand’s Singha All-Star XI in Bangkok last Saturday. His team have been training hard this week for their next match against the A-League All Stars.
“I want to see us step up from where we were in Thailand,” Moyes said.
“I thought that in general the fitness was fine in really difficult conditions on the field but overall I’d like to see the play improve as well.
“We had opportunities to score — I’d like to see that improve.”
