Sir Alex Ferguson believes it would be foolish to overlook Manchester United simply because they have not made a marquee signing.
United's Barclays Premier League campaign will get off to a delayed start due to their opener against Newcastle at Old Trafford being pushed back until Monday.
Ferguson is aware much of the pre-season talk has not been about his own club.
With new manager Roy Hodgson bringing in Joe Cole and managing to keep Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres at Liverpool, Arsenal staving off Barcelona's advances for Cesc Fabregas and Manchester City once again spending big in the pursuit of glory, United have largely been ignored.
Even the capture of Bebe from Vitoria Guimaraes is more notable because of the player's background rather than the £7million signing itself.
But, in Ferguson's eye, that does not make his team weak.
If the argument is made that City will be a better side because Roberto Mancini is bedded into Eastlands fabric, the United boss cannot see why the same assessment should not be made about his own team.
"Other clubs will be glad we didn't buy big in terms of David Villa or going out to buy Lionel Messi," said Ferguson.
"But I really don't think there was a need for us to do that.
"I have to trust the younger players coming through. We are good at that and I am going to stick to it.
"Nobody has left the club and if people are saying City will be better because Mancini has an extra year under his belt then surely Manchester United, with the present squad and the younger players a year older, will improve too."
Ferguson's spats with City over Carlos Tevez were the highlight of the pre-season skirmishes 12 months ago. Such bitterness has been avoided completely this time around.
Realising the "noisy neighbours" from the other half of town can no longer be ignored, Ferguson has adopted the policy of realism.
And, for City that should mean no excuses, not even flexibility for a slow start.
"City have to be in the top four," he said.
"They have spent money and the expectation increases with that. They have got to be in the pecking order.
"Mancini will know the strength of the players he had last year. I said last season they could easily go and buy another team and he has added (David) Silva, (Yaya) Toure, (Jerome) Boateng and (Aleksandar) Kolarov.
"I don't think they will be looking at making a bad start though. They didn't have one last season and they had a new team then.
"They have individuals who can score a goal and win games like Tevez and Adebayor."
Whether City can realistically push for the title is open to debate given their failure to secure a Champions League position this term meant they were unable to secure the highest calibre talent, including Torres.
That is where Ferguson expects his team to be challenging, having missed out on an unprecedented fourth consecutive title by a single point last term.
"You have to think that Chelsea, having won it last season, are going to be the favourites," he said.
"They are the team you have to try and knock off their perch.
"But it could be a really interesting league. It is unpredictable. At this moment in time I could throw a net over a few of them.
"By April you usually end up with a couple fighting it out.
"Last season I thought Arsenal were going to make it three. They failed in the last few games but they could easily be involved again."
For Ferguson, the keys to United's challenge are avoiding the devastating run of injuries that ripped the heart out of his defence last winter whilst also giving Rooney some support in the goalscoring department.
The arrival of Javier Hernandez already looks like an astute bit of business, with Ferguson adamant Michael Owen and Dimitar Berbatov can also make a healthy contribution.
"We have Owen and Berbatov with their experience. Rooney is now starting to mature and there is (Federico) Macheda and Hernandez," said Ferguson.
"There are goals there without a doubt."
Subject: Fergie: Rule us out if you dare! 
Sat Aug 14, 2010 10:04 am
