he Indian Ocean foaming past a lighthouse to his left has been likened to Govan Cross. Banter is directed over one interviewer’s “tatty” shirt and another’s “depressing” home town. Sir Alex Ferguson is recharged, relaxed and in his accustomed position of control.
It’s not where you might expect the Scot to be. Two months ago Manchester City appeared to have begun the end for Ferguson with their stoppage-time purloining of the Premier League. Over the summer, he’s got himself embroiled in a Manchester bidding war for Robin van Persie that United do not seem to possess the financial weaponry to win.
The theory is that City, the psychological hurdle of winning cleared, should now sprint away and force Ferguson to finally call time on his peerless career. The 70-year-old is having none of it. “I’m no worried about that at all. The team that everyone will worry about is Manchester United because our record at coming back is great.” He details the coming season as just another period of recovery, like the ones he coaxed United through when Arsenal and Chelsea temporarily outpointed them, and is so calm about it all, so convinced of the youthful abilities of his United squad, that he’s even prepared to address the vexed question of his succession. If Ferguson were a young manager again, would he fancy the challenge of taking over from himself?
“Yes, definitely,” is his instant reply. “Why not? No-one would refuse this job after me, whatever. To come to a club like this, based on solid foundations. A great stadium, great training ground, a lot of young players.
“If you look at the team I could play under 23. You could play De Gea; Rafael, Smalling, Jones, Evans as the back four.Cleverley, Powell, Chicharito, Lingard; Welbeck, Kagawa. You could play a premier division team of young players. So the future is absolutely solid.” Cannily acquired from Crewe this summer, Nick Powell is being converted to a central midfielder who, Ferguson says, “could be a big surprise for us even though he is only 18”. Jesse Lingard, 15 months older, excelled in last week’s defeat of Amazulu. “He will become a player when he’s 22, 24, he has got great talent, the boy.” Ferguson also talks highly of Tyler Blackett, 18, a left-back.
Asked about supporters’ complaints that they have waited four years for a purchase of the magnitude of Dimitar Berbatov’s £30m capture from Tottenham, his response is brutally direct. “Aye, well they can wait,” he says. “We buy the right way. Kagawa will be a really good signing for us and the boy Powell will be a player. You see, the difference between Manchester United and the rest is that we can play 18-year-olds if they are good enough, because it is part of our history. It seems to be a sort of destiny for us that when a young player emerges, play him. It’s never failed us.
“There’s not many clubs can do that. City won’t do it. They definitely won’t play any young players. All the buys are 25-, 26-, 27-year-old players, good maturity, right type of experience, good ages.But they don’t play any young players.”
While Ferguson is not against buying in City’s age bracket, he will not overpay. Last summer United agreed personal terms that would have made Samir Nasri one of the best-paid players at Old Trafford, only for the midfielder to move from Arsenal to City when they offered £185,000 a week. This year he pursued Eden Hazard until the Belgian’s financial demands repelled.
“What we’re finding is that the climate of buying these top players is that it’s not just the transfer fee; the salary and the agents’ fees are getting ridiculous now. I mean Hazard, Chelsea paid the agent £6m. I mean, you make a phone call, say, ‘Are you interested in a player?’, a couple of hours of negotiations, you get £6m. Seems absolutely ridiculous, doesn’t it?” Nasri’s agents, says Ferguson, “were the same”.
What he does not have a problem with is the financial support he has received from the Glazer family. United’s owners have been persistent targets of criticism from supporters angered by the £425m net debt the Americans’ leveraged takeover has saddled the club with.
“If you’re asking me for my view, I don’t have any complaints,” says Ferguson. “They’ve always been as helpful as they can in terms of financing the team. They’ve been great. You look at the money they are spending on our training ground this summer, it’s been fantastic.
“With United it is a wee bit different from the other clubs. There are a lot of factions at United who think that they own the club. Martin Edwards was always getting pelters because he was going to sell to [Robert Maxwell], then to [Rupert] Murdoch, then to Michael Knighton.
“And then when they went plc, there was this disaffection there. Then when the Glazers took over there was disaffection there. But the majority of the real fans will look at it in a more realistic way and say, ‘Look, its not affected the team, we’ve won four championships since they’ve been there; we’ve won the European Cup’.”
Ferguson thinks the squad he’s built for the Glazers is capable of taking another Champions League next May. He expects it to have taken back the Premier League by then as well.
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