Has Sir Alex Ferguson lost the plot - or is it time to ring the changes and really freshen things up at Old Trafford?

They say a winning team can get complacent if not kept on their toes. But losing three strikers of the calibre of Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Fraizer Campbell has more than a hint of recklessness about it.

Ronaldo was always going to go, it was just a case of when, and at least United have pocketed £80 million - a handsome return of almost £65 million on the player.

Tevez is a bit different. They have had to shell out somewhere in the region of £6-7m plus his wages to get him on loan from his agents and now must find £22m and around £160,000 a week in wages if they are to keep him at Old Trafford and out of the clutches of neighbours Manchester City.

The word is it's a done deal and Tevez is 99per cent a City player already. We shall see. But the one that really worries me is Campbell. The lad has done consistently well with United, Tottenham, Hull and England Under-21s, but Fergie has decided to cash in now and sell him to Hull for a few million quid.

Granted, he appears to have a surfeit of young strikers waiting in the wings with Danny Wellbeck and Federico Macheda also in the queue. But I would have been tempted to hang on to Campbell as he has more than proved himself as a capable squad player, whereas Wellbeck and Macheda still have to do that in my eyes.

And now that Ronaldo has gone, United will be left with only two proven strikers in Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov should Tevez jump ship and head for Eastlands.

Of course, there will be players coming in. Antonio Valencia is on his way from Wigan, by all accounts. He will fill the gap on the wing left by Ronaldo's departure, but he won't supply the goals the Portugeezer did in abundance.

United need to bring in a proven goalscorer to give them another option in the event of injury or international calls to Rooney or Berbatov. A central midfielder wouldn't go amiss, but apart from that they are fairly sound.

Edwin van der Saar is past his sell-by date but Ben Foster is more than capable of filling his boots and there is no real need to rush in and spend on a goalkeeper unless a really experienced one becomes available. United have got a few young ones waiting on the conveyor belt in that department, too.

Fergie needs to spend that £80m wisely because Liverpool are poised to pose a major threat next season, as are Chelsea of course, and to a lesser extent Arsenal and maybe even Everton, Tottenham and Manchester City.

With the money at his disposal Mark Hughes should be able to build a team capable of winning anything in time and with a target of the Europa League his only demand from his Arab owners he is under no real pressure next season. Under those circumstances he and City might just surprise one or two people and start to achieve a lot sooner than many people think they will!

ends.