UNITED KINGDOM: SOCCER / FOOTBALL - Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson press conference and celebrates with his team winning the Premier League title

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said on Monday (May 7) he hoped his team's first Premier League title in four years marked the start of another sustained spell of success, rather than the pinnacle of their endeavours. United clinched their 16th championship and ninth under Ferguson when Chelsea -- described by Ferguson as his most resilient ever rivals -- finally failed in their chase when only drawing with Arsenal on Sunday (May 6). "I think it's the club's greatest achievement, simply because it's a relatively new team together and hopefully it's going to get better because of that," Ferguson told reporters on Monday (May 7). "It's their first attempt at it really, this team, and that's why we are all encouraged." Ferguson admitted that repeating the kind of domestic dominance United enjoyed when winning eight titles in 11 seasons from 1993 onwards would be difficult to achieve. He expects Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal to strengthen their squads over the summer but believes there is still more to come from his side, which has been re-built since their last championship win in 2003. The manager said that his strategy had been to be well prepared for the 2006 season and stay with Chelsea in early matches to prevent them getting away. "I think if we get a good start and stay with Chelsea because the two previous years no one was with them. They had a clear run, clear weeks, or a week for most of the season, seasons, to win it. What we felt was if we could just be with them all the time, of course we did better than that, we managed to be in front of them all the time which was not easy to do, you know, in the premier division." With Cristiano Ronaldo recently agreeing a new long-term contract at Old Trafford, Ferguson can continue to develop his team around English football's player-of-the-year and the likes of Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Nemanja Vidic -- rated by Ferguson as the best central defender in the country. Ferguson also believes that ageing midfield players Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs -- who has nine championship medals in his collection -- can continue to operate at the highest level. And the United manager has identified three potential new summer signings which are almost certain to include Bayern Munich's England international Owen Hargreaves. Tottenham Hotspur striker Dimitar Berbatov has also been strongly linked with a move to Old Trafford, with Ferguson expecting to receive further financial backing from owners the Glazer family. "Well, we have outlined a couple, maybe three targets, you know, without going into that, to them. I think they are aware of that maybe. David (Glazer) is aware of that. We will just see how we get on with that. There is competition for the best players as everyone knows and if there is competition then it costs, you know, so we will just have to wait and see," Ferguson said.

ITN Source | May 8, 2007

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