An announcement last weekend that chairman Kevin McCabe was acting to strengthen the club's position in the transfer market created barely a ripple. . . but it is proving highly significant as manager Kevin Blackwell, pictured, prepares to add to his double swoop for Sun Jihai and Greg Halford.

Not least it was a tacit admission that United had little room to manoeuvre for big signings. More importantly, though, McCabe is taking another firm lead by engineering a way to pump up to £10m into a depleted budget for fees and - most of all - wages.

That is the boiled down, layman's interpretation of a complicated statement which referrred to the McCabe family's property company, the Scarborough Group, "rolling over its current £10m loan into convertible loan notes."

It marks a change of course by the plc chief in that he has shelved his earlier intention to add to his 75% plus shareholding.

Instead, he is ploughing his resources into Blackwell's kitty to set up a late foray into the market ahead of the closure of the transfer window at the end of August.

United can no longer count on a timely windfall from the Carlos Tevez affair. Post-hearing deliberations could extend into the Autumn.

Although this keeps alive the prospect of a negotiated compensation settlement with West Ham if the tribunal find in United's favour, the issue is divorced from planning for the new season.

Blackwell is understandably comfortable anyway in sitting on an already strong - and now strengthened - squad. But he could soon have power to add.

It has been clear for a while that attacking width is his priority. The names who keep cropping up in the speculation game are all wingers. . . David Cotterill, Lee Martin, Peter Halmosi, Lee Cook and - a new addition to the list - Sunderland's Ross Wallace.

The arrivals of experienced Manchester City utility man Sun Jihai, on a two-year deal, and previous Neil Warnock target Greg Halford - on loan from Sunderland - could trigger outgoings after swelling the squad to around 30. But McCabe has cleared Blackwell to do his shopping first.