Neville expecting new faces at United

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson (L) and captain Gary Neville attend a press conference. Neville believes Manchester United will be active in the post-season transfer market as the club look to build on their League Cup success

Gary Neville believes Manchester United will be active in the post-season transfer market as the club look to build on their League Cup success.

United's 4-0 thrashing of Premiership surprise package Wigan at the Millennium Stadium last wweekend meant the Old Trafford club avoided going through two successive seasons without a trophy - something that last happened before the 31-year-old England right-back had made it into the first-team.

The League Cup has always been fairly low down the list of priorities for United manager Alex Ferguson but Neville said the club could use this season's success as a springboard for better things.

And after lifting his first trophy as United captain barely two months after the departure of Roy Keane, Neville said he expected Ferguson to plug the gaps in the Red Devils' midfield.

"This team has potential," Neville said. We are not at our peak yet but I have no doubt we will get there in the next couple of years or so. I have no doubt either the manager will add to the squad this summer.

"If you look at the midfield, we have been absolutely decimated. We have lost Paul Scholes, Quinton Fortune and Alan Smith, and we also lost Roy Keane. You cannot account for losing so many class players in one area.

"That is why I imagine there will be additions to what we feel is already a strong squad."

Smith, who is recovering from a broken leg sustained in the FA Cup exit against Liverpool, has never looked comfortable in midfield having made his name at Leeds United as a striker.

And his presence there has been symptomatic of a season where United have crashed out of the Champions League and are currently 15 points behind leaders and title-holders Chelsea in the Premiership.

However, Neville was irked by suggestions that United were a fading force.

"It is 18 months since we won the FA Cup but you would think it is 10 years the way some people have been going on.

"We understand the criticism comes from being out of Europe and a long way behind Chelsea in the Premiership.

"There have been difficult moments over the past year or so but it is not as if the lads are not desperate to win matches.

"But people have to understand this is a developing team, which has not yet reached its capabilities.

"As the younger players get older, they will start to gain greater consistency. Now, they also have the confidence of winning a trophy and the thought process which makes you want to do it again and again, which is what this club demands.

"There are only four trophies to be won and we have won one of them. But we all know where we need to be. It is the European Cup and the league championship, that is what Manchester United is all about."

Ryan Giggs, along with Neville a member of the Old Trafford 'Class of 92' that provided the foundation for much of United's success during the last decade, was enthusiastic about the new crop's prospects.

"I certainly hope this squad can emulate the 'Class of 92'," said Giggs, now two shy of equalling former Liverpool defender Phil Neal's haul of 17 major medals, the most won by a single player in English football history.

"We have got a relatively young team and what this victory has done is give players who have not won a trophy a taste of success," the Welshman added.

"The build-up to the final, getting to the final, seeing the crowds in the stadium and eventually winning it, makes you want it more and more. Hopefully it will happen with these players."