This from The Observer:
‘Manchester United look set to back Alex Ferguson's transfer plans by funding the purchase of a player - probably a striker - when the transfer window reopens next month.
'We normally restrict our buying of players to the summer, but if Sir Alex can persuade [chief executive] Peter Kenyon and the board that money needs to be spent to strengthen a particular area of the team, then it will be forthcoming,' said an Old Trafford insider.
Although Ferguson is keen to acquire a fourth striker to play alongside Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Diego Forlan, he has still not identified his man.
His search is complicated because he wants a player who is eligible to play in the Champions League, which rules out anyone who has played in that competition or the Uefa Cup already this season. Among those who have featured in speculation in recent weeks, Robbie Fowler and Alan Smith at Leeds, and Chelsea's Eidur Gudjohnsen have all appeared in the Uefa Cup.
Those players' stature appears to rule them out, too. Ferguson believes United need a front player with a commanding physical presence, rather than a smaller player in the Solskjaer-Forlan mould. Although Southampton's James Beattie has been mentioned, he does not feature in Ferguson's current thinking.’