“Young players surprise you,” said Ferguson. “When we signed Ronaldo we said, ‘Look Cristiano, you might only end up playing 20 games in your first season’, but he played 40. We said the same to Nani and Anderson, we told them they would not play every week and they’ve been helped by Ronaldo. They stayed in his house when they first came and I’m sure part of the reason they came to United was because he was here.
“But we’re delighted how they’ve settled in. When we decided to play them, there was an immediate impact which you don’t always get. Anderson has just accelerated in the last two or three weeks because he was given the opportunity to show what he could do. We have been very pleased with that, probably the most pleasing part because it proves we’re getting it right with our recruitment policy.
“When you pay a lot of money for young players, you are taking a chance. But I believe with the players we’ve bought that we’ve made the right decisions. If last week’s Champions League game had been vital for us, Anderson wouldn’t have been left out of the team.”
