Red Devils has no plans to add in January

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson says he has no January targets in mind and will not be breaking from tradition and buying players 'on a whim'.

The Red Devils have been linked with a number of potential new recruits in the build-up to the January transfer window, with a creative midfielder said to top their wish list.

Ferguson will have the final say in any deals, and he insists he has no plans at present to dip into the market.

United are not prepared to change their ways and spend for the sake of it, and that means there are no new faces 'on the horizon'.

"I don't think I'll change my tactic on that (buying in January) because, if there's a player who I have been interested in, and he was available in January, we would try and do business," Ferguson told MUTV.

"But there's no such player really on the horizon that way, unless we can identify someone we've been monitoring a lot because we don't buy just on a whim at this club.

"Normally, we try and have a good progress report on the player, particularly background information on him, and there's no-one at this moment in time who meets that criteria."

Rather than bring in bodies, Ferguson would prefer to hand further opportunities to United's stars of the future - with FA Youth Cup winners such as Paul Pogba and Ravel Morrison making the step up into the senior fold this season.

"They're getting stronger as they get older," added the Scot.

"Paul Pogba will be 19 in March. Ezekiel Fryers has been involved. Larnell Cole, Jesse Lingard and Ravel Morrison have all been involved.

"When you think 'okay, possibly the standard has risen since the days when Ryan (Giggs) made his debut at 17, even our Darren (Ferguson) was young and Lee Sharpe made his debut at 17'. Quite a few players did at that time.

"But they have good ability and a good standard of play themselves so I wouldn't be adverse to trying one or two, particularly in home matches, and involving them as substitutes to give them parts of a game, which we tend to do with a lot of them.

"So that's certainly in my thoughts."