Alex Ferguson has spent the last seven months trying to prise Owen Hargreaves away from Bayern Munich but, having failed in two successive transfer windows, the Manchester United manager insisted he did not regard it as a "big disappointment" because of the way Michael Carrick was growing into his role at the club.

Ferguson will return for Hargreaves at the end of the season but yesterday he was at pains to give Carrick a public vote of confidence about his increasingly influential performances in the centre of midfield.

Carrick returns to Tottenham tomorrow for the first time since moving to United last summer for a fee of up to £18.6 million that, while deemed excessive at the time, Ferguson believes is beginning to look like a sound piece of business. Carrick made an ordinary start to his career at Old Trafford but Ferguson has noted a significant improvement in his form and highlighted the 25-year-old as one of the key players in the title run-in.

"I thought he ran the show for us against Watford on Wednesday night and his performance in the Arsenal game two weeks ago was probably one of the best midfield displays of the season," said Ferguson. "He's improving all the time and he's getting stronger physically. He used to be a rakish young man, tall and lanky, but he's developed now that he's in his mid-20s. He's shown good maturity and what we have when we talk about Michael Carrick is an absolutely sensational passer of the ball.

"I don't think the supporters ever questioned him but I know there were things in the media: can he head the ball? can he tackle? can he defend? All that nonsense. Maybe because we paid (an initial) £14 million people were expecting him to score 30 goals a season or something like that. But we're absolutely delighted with him."

Ferguson was so lavish in his praise that it raised the question of why he was so determined to buy Hargreaves, another holding midfielder. "You have to remember Paul Scholes is 32," he said. "Although I think Paul can play on for quite a while yet, we were doing the right thing, protecting our future. Hargreaves is a young, English, central midfield player."

The feeling at Old Trafford is that Hargreaves will be available in the summer if he continues to campaign for the move. Ferguson intends to monitor developments at Bayern following the appointment of Ottmar Hitzfeld as coach to replace Felix Magath.

Ferguson said: "Everybody has got his own ambition to improve their club and, particularly when a new manager comes in, I am sure they will give him support. Because it is Ottmar Hitzfeld and he has had a great experience with Bayern in the past, they are always likely to listen to him and that is an obvious worry for us. But we don't know until we get talking to him, if that does happen."

Guardian Service