Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson admitted his interest in Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski, but hinted Bayern Munich might beat them to the signing of the prolific Pole.
Lewandowski is widely expected to leave Dortmund at the end of the season, after refusing to sign a new contract. His current deal expires in the summer of 2014 and Dortmund face the possibility of having to let go of the 24-year-old on a free, if they do no sell him this summer.
Manchester United and Bayern Munich are thought to be the favorites, with some reports even suggesting the German champions had already come to a pre-contract agreement with Lewandowski.
Ferguson was posed the question of whether he would consider buying a big-name player in this year's transfer window. "In what position? That's the main thing," he told reporters. "Normally, the players you're talking about are forwards and it's complicated enough as it is with the forwards we have."
Asked specifically about Lewandowski, Ferguson was wary of the threat posed by Bayern Munich in snaring the Dortmund man.
"Bayern are strong in that one too aren't they?" he added. "We'll just have to wait and see where we are in terms of if we win the league. Maybe then we'll view it differently."
United can win the title if they beat Aston Villa on Monday night, and Ferguson admitted there would only be minor changes to the squad which has romped towards the Premier League title this season.
"I think it'll be minor," he said. "Maybe but I don't know. It depends on a lot of things like the availability of players. Not everybody wants to sell their players. What do we need?
"We have a reasonable group of young players in Kagawa, Evans, Smalling, Jones, Rafael, Fabio will be back, Buttner, De Gea, Cleverley, Welbeck and Chicharito. They're all in a really young age group that can last quite a few years and we expect improvement from the younger players in the team.
"Jones and Smalling, if I can keep them clear of injury, will improve a lot as they've got the material. We've seen improvement in Welbeck from last season and he's improving all the time. The issue with Danny is the goals and that's where we want to see improvement in him.
"Last year he scored 12 goals but this year only two so he has had a wee bit of a plateau. With England, he looks like he can score in every game though."
