"I’m confident about Howard. He’s quick. He’s courageous. He’s got good reflexes, good spring and agility. He’s an American athlete. I think all Americans are winners and he’s come out of a good club environment, where he had a terrific apprenticeship under Tony Meola.
"In the case of Djemba-Djemba, he’s a player who I think could do a particular type of job for us as a defensive midfielder. He’s very, very good at that and he might surprise people with how good he is at passing the ball forward from defensive positions. He can spring our attacks from there.
"Kleberson, I think will be a terrific player. He’s very versatile. He can play a number of positions, on the right or in the centre of midfield.
"If you look throughout the squad the one area where we’re probably short is in the back four positions, because of Wes Brown’s injury," said Ferguson. "I don’t really have a lot of alternatives there. I could put Keane in there. I could use Phil Neville. I could possibly put Kleberson back, and Djemba-Djemba played at right-back a couple of times for Nantes.
"But to start with, the back four will pick itself: Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Mikael Silvestre and John O’Shea. I could put Phil or Keane back there and I possibly could put Kleberson back there and I possibly could put Djemba Djemba at right back. He played there a couple of times last year for Nantes. But we could maybe do with another defender. (Ed. Cue next story)
"We won't have to change the way the team plays now David has gone.
"The team picks itself. Solskjaer will play wide right — as he did in every big game last season. Darren Fletcher is coming through, maybe Kieron Richardson has a chance, but Fletcher's outstanding - we're trying him wide right, too.
"It's much the same thing we did with Beckham when he was a kid and if he does well that's an avenue for us."
"The players have done great in training. They are all working hard and giving it their best.
"We don’t have another Ruud, and I haven’t been looking for one in the transfer market. I don’t know where you could get another one anyway.
"There’s nobody in the game who can play directly up as a striker, alone, and score a volume of goals like he does. Well, maybe Ronaldo. Ronaldo can do it if he wants.
"There seems to be a real buzz throughout the unit."