Now Fergie goes for the treble: Berbatov, Hargreaves and Bale

Having wrapped up United's ninth Premiership title on Sunday, Ferguson will begin the pursuit of Bayern Munich's Owen Hargreaves, Southampton full back Gareth Bale and Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov, whose stock rose even higher after a brilliant solo goal against Charlton last night.

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The long-running attempt to recruit England midfielder Hargreaves has slowed after Bayern Munich raised their asking price to more than £20million.

Ferguson said: "I don't think we have an easy task but what I do think is that this team will get better and if they stay together it will give them a real chance. We have three - maybe two - targets. The owners are aware of that.

"There is competition for the best players and, if there is competition, they cost money."

Ferguson takes his team to Chelsea tomorrow with the Premiership already in the bag with two games to spare.

The Old Trafford manager believes the standards set by Chelsea over the last two years were so high that United's success this season outstrips the Treble year of 1999 and even the club's first European Cup win in 1968.

Ferguson said: "I think it is the club's greatest achievement because it is a relatively new team. Hopefully, it is going to get better because of that.

"I did think it would be a difficult task to stop Chelsea because of the amount of money they had.

"When they signed Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack, that seemed designed to win them the European Cup. I kept hoping they would concentrate on the European Cup. But they were involved in the four main trophies right to the very end and it shows you the strength in depth they have.

"It is a great achievement by my players, terrific. If you think for the last two or three years you have needed 90 or 91 points to get there, it is a hell of a total when you think of how many fewer points we needed the first year we won it (84 from 42 games).

"We have 88 and it is possible we could get 94. That's amazing. There is a lot of satisfaction in the way we have won it.

"When we are in full flow, we are quite potent and there were a few performances like that; Bolton away, Liverpool at home, Tottenham away."

Ferguson met his players at the club's training ground yesterday morning, where his squad were quick to congratulate Ryan Giggs on winning his ninth title medal - a record.

United are talking to captain Gary Neville about a new contract but could lose unsettled defenders Wes Brown and Mikael Silvestre.

The club will award medals to forwards Alan Smith and Henrik Larsson, even though the two players have not played enough games to qualify automatically.

Berbatov, who had scored 21 goals before last night's game, would give United a world-class foil for Wayne Rooney, while Bale is seen as more of a long-term project.

Bale has been a major player in Southampton's season, which sees them contesting the play-offs. A year ago he made his international debut for Wales while still only 16.