Never mate, however, our record of buying unknown players from obscure leagues has been not that great. I reckon we lost money on the two serbs, overpaid on diouf and bebe, and struck gold with chicharito.
That is simply not a fact if you see all the picture, some examples from the top of my head in the 90's and 00's:
Peter Schmeichel from Brøndby, Denmark, great signing.
Andrei Kanchelskis from Shaktar Donetsk, Ukraine, great signing.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer from Molde, Norway, great signing.
Ronny Johnsen was signed from Besiktas, Turkey - great signing.
Nemanja Vidic from CSKA Moscow, Russia, great signing.
Don't see why Ronaldo and Bebe was so awfully different? Ronaldo was a bit more hyped, but not that much. Ferguson were said to notice him in the friendly between United and Sporting, he had not played much. Ronaldo was twice as expensive too... It is easy to see that Bebe has some interesting attributes.
Ferguson prefers to sign the best players from smaller clubs than Manchester United, that has always been his main philosophy. He looks away from the top clubs in Spain and Italy, and if you compare Manchester United and Real Madrid, it is easy to see that United are far more successfully with ten Premier League golds the past two decades while Real Madrid won only seven.