Manchester United suffered their first pre-season friendly defeat on Wednesday night but manager Alex Ferguson was delighted with the debut of his new boy Eric Djemba-Djemba.
United were trounced 3-1 against Sporting Lisbon as the Portuguese club unveiled their new stadium, but the 22-year-old midfielder clearly stood out in a team that seemed fatigued after their whistle stop tour of America.
Djemba-Djemba linked up well with Nicky Butt before tiredness set in, but Ferguson was full of praise for the Cameroon international: "He played very well in the first half and although he was weaker after the break I'm satisfied," said Ferguson.
The performance of United's new recruit backed up Ferguson's earlier claims that he had more than enough talent in midfield even after the exits of David Beckham and Juan Sebastian Veron.
And although Ferguson has also captured Brazillian midfielder Kleberson, the Scot is setting his sights on signing another defender and a striker before the season kicks off.
But despite receiving £40million from the sales of Beckham and Veron, the United boss warned other clubs not to expect him to be spending silly money.
"We've added three players but we do need two players, possibly up front but we do need a defender, that's something we are looking at," he said.
"There's clubs selling because the gravy train has stopped at the moment - there's one massive buyer, that's Chelsea, and the rest are trying to be sensible.
"We at United have always kept a good ship, very well balanced in terms of salaries and money paid out and we are always competitive in terms of winning things."
Although United crashed to defeat in Portugal after goals from Luis Filipe and Joao Pinto, Ferguson had nothing but praise for the way Sporting performed: "Congratulations to Sporting for the great performance and for the great stadium," he said.
"We had to travel a long way to get here and I can't say I was surprised, I was expecting that. Sporting played very well."
United's next game is against FA Cup holders Arsenal in Sunday's Community Shield at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.
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