Ferguson: I wont be Manchester United boss when I'm 70

By Jonathan Northcroft

@T= Sometimes its the littler moments that reveal greatness in its magnitude. John Terry was still blubbing and colleagues were celebrating when Ryan Giggs sought out Cristiano Ronaldo, cupped his head and peered into his eyes. I said, Enjoy this, and make sure its not your last. At 23, and with his talent, Cristiano should be having more nights like this, said Giggs. Ten minutes after Manchester United ended 2007-08 as European champions came the first team talk of 2008-09.

Sir Alex Ferguson did not open his mouth. Relentless, unquenchable, seldom has a club been so much in its managers image. Ferguson has arrived at that point of nirvana sought by men of history, where he so influences others that he does not need to be present for his work to be done. It is called legacy, and it is why, on Friday, fingers curled round a flute of champagne, Ferguson could at last reveal how his epic will end. He is not planning another ghost retirement as in 2001-02, but the real thing, for that serene and stately, and final, ride into the long sunset.

Ferguson, 67 on December 31, announced he would not be managing when he is 70. He has three seasons left, at most. The likelihood, wishing to keep everyone on their toes, is that Ferguson will go sooner, perhaps at the end of 2009-10. He will have served 24 years as manager by then, the same, he will know, as Sir Matt Busby.

Botoxed by silverware yet again, Ferguson did not look like someone yielding to age, but then he seldom does. He makes a lie out of the idea it is the young who have no fear. Both pre-match and when destiny called inside the Luzhniki stadium, Ferguson was the more relaxed manager, acting the more daringly, and thus shaped victory over Avram Grant.

In triumphs afterglow, he was sparkling, teasing a Tory-voting journalist (David Cameron will fall apart, dont worry. Hes naw got it . . . ) and cracking jokes about the city he has so tormented, Liverpool. During Uniteds all-night party in Moscow he had been too busy talking to friends and playing with his grandchildren to have more than two glasses of , and a bit of cheese. Ever Sir Polymath, he digressed to offer a connoisseurs guide to caviar; he was disappointed that at Uniteds buffet (£400 per head . . . and you paid cash!) only red caviar (too sticky) was available but, no matter, Andrei Kanchelskis turned up with a gift of black caviar (the good stuff, from the Caspian Sea).

Then Ferguson laid out his remaining challenges. One is making United so mammoth it would become futile for rival clubs even to try courting star players like Ronaldo. Another is helping Wayne Rooney develop as spectacularly as the Portuguese. Finally, he confirmed even mens men can be soft as butter. This iron manager admitted a surprising taste for Meg Ryan films.

---------Sir Alex, your next landmark birthday is your 70th. Will you still be in charge of Manchester United then?

No. I wont be manager here when Im 70 and I wont be managing any more than another three years at the very most.

-------Why?

You have to think about time for yourself. And my wifes getting older, and you have to think about that. She deserves a bit of my time. The older you get, you get guilty about it.

--------When you considered retiring in 2001-02, Lady Cathy was one of the main people who persuaded you to rethink. You said she wouldnt like you hanging about the house.

Aye. But she would. She never brings it up, to be honest with you. The big fear is what you would do with yourself. Theres too many examples of people who retire and are in their box soon after. Because youre taking away the very thing that makes you alive, that keeps you alive. I remember my dad had his 65th birthday and the Fairfields shipyard gave him a dinner in Glasgow with 400 people there. It was a big night for my dad. I was in Aberdeen and came down for it on a Friday. The next week my mother phones and said, Your dads going in for an X-ray, he has pains in his chest. I said, Itll be emotion. Well, it was cancer. A week. One week.

---------So you know youll find retirement tough.

Thats the point Im making. Thats why I cannae do it, at the moment anyway.

---------In 2001-02 there was talk of you taking up an ambassadorial role with United. Is that still a possibility?

Were taking on a cl**tch of ambassadors within the club, like Bryan Robson. Sir Bobby Charltons one. Thats possibly one of the avenues for me. Bryan and Bobby do 40 days a year. And Ive a contract with Nike that takes a bit of your time. Id like to travel to some of the places Ive never visited, go to the States and spend maybe three or four months there.

But you can only do that once. You can go to Australia once, but you cant go every year. So youre left with that thing you say to yourself. What about these mornings when you wake up at 6am and you go to get up out of your bed, then remember, Oh, but Ive finished. Thats the hard part, the hard thought. But youd hope you can survive that.

Every year mates from my boys team, Hampden Road, come down to Manchester. Every one of them has been married for more than 40 years. One or two have died, but there are 11 or 12 who still visit. Well, Ive got a pal, Duncan. I was in nursery with Duncan at four years of age, weve been pals for more than 60 years. He retired when he was 50 and spends six months of the year traveling. He bought a house in Florida and his wife looks on the internet. Theres a deal in Cyprus, well go to Cyprus. Theres a deal in Australia, well go to Australia. They visit Canada. Duncans got brothers in Ottawa, in the same town some of my family moved to.

Hes fit as a fiddle. He plays his golf, sees his grandchildren. It can be done. And Manchester United will still be part of my life. Ive got a good relationship. Theres no question of me ever being sacked. Most things will be my decision and David Gill is happy with that.

---------Can you keep Cristiano Ronaldo?

Ronaldo will not be leaving here in the next two years at least. He knows whats best for him. When he becomes 25 or 26 he might have a different view and want something else out of life. And I wouldnt be against him in that respect. What weve got to try and do is make sure were bigger. We cant rest on what happened in Moscow. Weve got to make ourselves bigger.

Its like this. Do you remember that movie called Ive Got Email. With, um, Meg Ryan. The wee shop round the corner gets engulfed by the big one owned by Tom Hanks and she cant do anything about it. Thats been happening in society for 30 or 40 years; the wee shop gets engulfed by the supermarkets. Well, we dont want to be one of the small shops. Id *lo**y hate to think Real Madrid can ride roughshod over us about a player. Yes, they courted Ruud van Nistelrooy and his agent courted Real Madrid. That was a marriage made in hell. The minute Van Nistelrooy signed his new contract it was a certainty he was leaving here. His one idea was to go to Real Madrid. We wanted him to go. Same with David Beckham, we wanted to sell Beckham. We dont want to sell Ronaldo.

---------How do you make United bigger? Is expanding the stadium part of it?

Im on to David Gill all the time about that. I know what we can do. In the main stand, at both ends, you build a steel structure up and across. Right? We cant build back, because of the railway line behind, so we build upwards the way Im talking about. Or shove all you press boys somewhere out of the road. That would get us 200 or 300 seats . . .

Building just one corner of the main stand would get us another 6,500 seats and take us up to around 83,000 capacity. We could sell 100,000 tickets for our games but, architecturally, thats not possible. At least if we build the way Im talking about, it would make the façade of the stadium symmetrical all the way round and wed reach Real Madrids level in terms of capacity, and it would make us bigger than anyone in England could do.

---------How else can the club expand?

Well, commercially weve done well. David Gills got a good team together. But thats not my department. To me, the money we make doesnt matter. The only thing that matters to me is that black type, as they say in racing circles. You want to play in European Cup finals. If someone like Ronaldo is playing in the European Cup final every year, hes not going to go anywhere.

------------Are you ever worried Wayne Rooney might feel uncomfortable about the rise of Ronaldo? When he joined United he was supposed to be the star.

Theyre great pals. I dont think it affects the boy, no. Waynes a winner. It doesnt bother him one bit. Hes got that, I suppose, Liverpool attitude, that bugger you all type thing. And he doesnt court celebrity. His girlfriend is great that way too. Shes a clever girl, down to earth.

------------Some fans say Rooney is too unselfish for his own good, that hed get more glory if he wasnt such a team player.

Rooneys not a selfish boy. He is a committed winner. He makes a lot of sacrifices, which dont reflect on his individual performance, but as a team player hes fantastic. Hell play anywhere you ask. I mean, he says to me the other week, Boss, I can play centre-half. Hes said it half-a-dozen times. I played centre-half for the school, you know. I said, But were playing against Drogba

Its a fantastic asset if youve got players like that. I had Brian McClair, a fantastic footballer. You could say to Chalky, Go and play at right-back, and hed say, Nothing surprises me about you. He was so nonchalant, so temperamentally capable, that he could go and do it. And Rooneys got the same assets in terms of saying, Yeah, for the team, no problem. Hes great.

----------His progress has not been as dramatic as Ronaldos, though.

Ah, but hes eight months younger. Wait and you might see somethingWe know we have to work with Wayne in terms of finding his right position. Im not sure what that is sometimes. Hes fantastic when hes aggressive up front but when he drops in he offers so many options in terms of balance and looking at a situation quickly. So weve got to make up our mind. It would help me if we could get another player, a centre-forward maybe.

-------Rooney and Carlos Tevez are quite small. Would you be looking for a taller striker?

Possibly.

--------Can you tell us who? As a present?

Aye, thatll be right.

----------Unlike Ronaldo, its hard to picture Rooney leaving United.

Yeah. Hes a local boy. He comes from 35 miles away. Okay, so not exactly local. I mean, you cant say Liverpools local to anything.

-----------You got the big decisions right in Moscow, going 4-4-2, using Ronaldo as a conventional winger to attack Michael Essien, making positive substitutions. What was your thinking?

Id picked the team a week before. The subs were the problem and I had to leave out Park Ji Sung. Chelsea set themselves up in midfield with three very experienced players and I had to get myself an option of playing Owen Hargreaves, so I could put him in central midfield at some point of the game. Chelsea dominated the second half and we brought Hargreaves into the centre. As far as Im concerned, that stopped the rot. It was a good night.

And soon he was gone, off to attend to his legacy, ready for one final working week before a family holiday that begins on June 1. This knight of a thousand trophies is savoring his last days in football like he would Caspian Sea caviar. Or a Meg Ryan chick flick.

(The Sunday Times)-



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