Manchester United has accepted a bid from Birmingham for goalkeeper Ben Foster.
"I think he deserves the opportunity to do better for himself. That's the reason we accepted the offer," United manager Alex Ferguson said Tuesday at a news conference in New York to discuss the club's preseason tour.
Foster was stuck behind Edwin Van der Sar, United's No. 1 goalkeeper since the 2005-06 season, and was alongside Tomasz Kuszczak, another backup.
The 27-year-old Foster appeared in just nine Premier League games last season, mostly while Van der Sar was sidelined early in the season by a pair of broken fingers. Foster played in just one match after Nov. 25, when United lost to Turkey's Besiktas 1-0 in the Champions League after a 30-meter (yard) shot took a slight deflection and beat Foster.
He also was blamed for a Kenwyne Jones goal in a 2-2 draw with Sunderland on Oct. 3, when Foster failed to deal with a high ball into the box and Jones headed in.
"I feel and I still am very strong about this, I think he's the best goalkeeper in England - English goalkeeper," Ferguson said.
Ferguson said Foster felt a lack of playing time at United had cost him a place in England's World Cup squad. Foster believes he will have a chance to start at Birmingham, where Joe Hart was on loan last season from Manchester City.
Ferguson said 20-year-old Ben Amos, will be United's third goalkeeper next season.
"He has a good future ahead of him," he said.
With the Premier League starting squad limits next season, he anticipates at most adding one more player in addition to the two he already has signed: Mexican striker Javier Hernandez from Chivas and English defender Chris Smalling from Fulham.
United's run of three straight Premier League titles came to an end earlier this month when it finished second, one point behind Chelsea.
"The market today is very, very difficult," Ferguson said. "The structure of our squad is good. I have no great worries of the structure of the squad - i.e. ages. The balance of the squad, the numbers, I'm quite happy with. A lot of good, young players. Sometimes you have to have to have trust and faith of what we have developed in the last few years. And at the moment, I'm going to stick with that, for most of it."
United chief executive David Gill, who also attended the news conference, said the club had not noticed any economic impact of the supporters who are opposed to the Glazer family that owns the club, a group that has worn green-and-gold protest scarves.
"Our season ticket sales, renewals, for this upcoming season are on track with previous years. Our executive ticket renewals are on track," he said. "The owners that we have at Manchester United have been true to their word with us since they took over the club in 2005. They've brought commercial expertise and commercial benefit to us in a numbers of areas, and we've seen our revenues grow significantly."
Duncan Drasdo, chief executive of the Manchester United Supporters Trust, issued a statement accusing the Glazers of wasting 437 million pounds (about $630 million) in fees and interest since they bought the club. Some supporters are upset the club has more than 700 million pounds ($1 billion) of debt.
"We easily can meet those interest payments," Gill said. "We're very confident the business model we have in place will be secure and will ensure the club can continue to compete at the top of football for many years to come."
