Tosic and Ljajic join United

3 January 09 by Bill

Long term targets, Zoran Tosic and Adem Ljajic have signed for United from Partizan Belgrade in a deal reported to be worth up to £17 million.

As previously reported, Tosic will join up with the rest of the squad next week with Ljajic remaining with Partizan until the end of the year. Tosic, at just 21 is considered to be one of the best wide players in Europe although some have questioned whether he would be able to handle the physical nature of the Premier League. Having not played since December 10th, Ferguson expects it to be at least a month until the youngster is ready for action but believes he will be more than ready to make the step up.

“The boy has some very good attributes,” Ferguson said. “He has a good understanding of the game itself and a decent goalscoring record. He has scored quite a few goals from free-kicks as well, so we just need to give him time to develop.”

Alex Ferguson revealed the arrival of Tosic should mean the end of Wayne Rooney’s days out on the left allowing the England International to play in his favoured role through the middle.

He said: “There is no harm in having three or four wide players given the pace of our game. We don’t consider Ryan (Giggs) a wide player now, which leaves us with Park Ji-sung, Nani and Cristiano Ronaldo. We have tried Wayne Rooney there and we played Darren Fletcher wide right. But in terms of natural width Zoran is a natural.”