July 7th 2009
Ben Foster given new four year deal at Manchester United.

October 12th 2009
Ferguson: “I still feel he is the best English goalkeeper around. He has been outstanding in a lot of things. The save he made on Wednesday was typical of his performance level with us too. They are a demonstration of the guy’s ability. But he still has not had a lot of game time and experience. His injuries have curtailed the progress he was making. He is only going to get better, though, and there is no question he will be a fantastic goalkeeper.”

November 21st 2009
Ferguson: “He is definitely staying here. He has had a couple of bad mistakes in games but his performance level has been very good. He will be a terrific goalkeeper. So will Tomasz Kuszczak. They are good goalkeepers they just have the problem that they have Edwin van der Sar in front of them. Ben is a strong lad. Without doubt he is England’s best goalkeeper. Without question he has the best presence and he is the quickest. He is also very brave. But for a lad of 26 he has not had much game experience. That is the negative part for him and that is where maybe it will cost him his England position at the moment. However, I am not protecting the lad because he is my goalkeeper but when I look at the abilities of the goalkeepers in the league who are English, I don’t think they are as good as Ben Foster. It is as simple as that.”

November 24th 2009
Ferguson: “Edwin’s not said anything yet about what he intends to do. It will be Christmas time or sometime in December when he will outline his plans and how long he will go on. We will await that. Ben has terrific ability and needs game experience. Tomasz is also another good keeper. At the end of the day the two of them will fight it out, I’m sure of that.”

April 23rd 2010
Ferguson: “Ben has fantastic talent and I am sure he will be tremendous next year. The boy has just signed a new contract and has never said anything to me, so as far as I am concerned, he will be here.”

May 14th 2010
Foster’s agent: “We are close to agreeing a deal. The two clubs have agreed a fee and given us permission to talk to Birmingham. We fully expect the deal to be completed either this weekend or the start of next week.”

The agreed fee is believed to be £5 million.