The United boss took time out from his club’s pre-season tour in Seattle to speak to Sportsmail on a wide range of subjects including the growing threat of Manchester City, Barcelona’s brilliance, a summer of change at Old Trafford and going head-to-head with Chelsea’s new young manager Andre Villas-Boas.
How do you view the new season and challenge ahead?
We’ve lost five experienced players who gave the club great service - Wes Brown, John O’Shea, Edwin van der Sar, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville.
At the time you look at it and think it’s a big slice out of the cake, but we have replaced them by bringing back Danny Welbeck (from Sunderland) and Tom Cleverley (from Wigan) and adding Ashley Young, Phil Jones and David De Gea which we think fills the gap. We’ve actually got 11 players aged 22 and under with us, so it could be an emerging team again.
Laid back: Sir Alex Ferguson is entering his 25th full season with Manchester United... and it could be his toughest yet'
There are also some experienced players who are maturing and will carry the responsibility. Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Rio Ferdinand have responsible roles. So do Ryan Giggs, even though he is 37, Michael Carrick and Michael Owen.
These are experienced players, and the young players will be desperate to get in their positions so I think it’s a healthy situation we’re in.
The record 19th title was such a big deal, wasn’t it?
I never thought it was a big deal until the last few weeks when it became more of an attraction as we got closer and closer. It was great. You saw the reception we got from the fans that Monday when it was absolutely bucketing down with rain and maybe quarter-of-a-million people came out along the route.
Big deal: Hundreds of thousands of fans lined the streets of Manchester in May as United celebrated'
Can you believe it’s your 25-year anniversary coming up?
I thought when I reached 10 years that was the landmark for me. The years just roll on. Because of the expectation to do well, I look more forward than back.
You turn 70 at the end of the year. In your mind have you got a time and date when you might retire?
Absolutely none. Not at all. I’m not even thinking about it.
Roberto Mancini said he loved that you still celebrate a goal like you did 25 years ago. Does it still bring that same excitement to you?
Yes. Everybody is different when it comes to celebrating goals. It’s your emotion. Some people have different emotions to me. I’ve got a Scottish nature which tends to show. A lot of Scottish people do show their emotions, whereas I’ve seen managers when their side has scored a goal and they’re like, “Yeah, I expected that”.
Is there an element of the unknown about this season with the change of personnel?
No. The only area is the goalkeeping position. De Gea is 20 years of age. He’s young and he’s played in the Spanish league for a couple of years but it’s not the English league.
I think he will need time to settle. The potential is enormous, it’s absolutely unbelievable, and he’ll improve himself. I’ve got the boy Anders Lindegaard, too. They may both challenge for it but in time the boy De Gea will be in position (to take the No 1 shirt), there’s no doubt about that.
Is the number of teams capable of challenging for the title getting bigger? City and Liverpool have spent and there’s always Arsenal?
Doing the jig: The United bench remains as animated as it always has been whenever a goal is scored'
Well, it’s quite simply this: one of that three has emerged really in the last couple of years.
There was a period not so long ago when they were actually in the Second Division and they were never a thorn in our flesh, whereas every year we’ve had to contend with either Arsenal, Chelsea or Liverpool.
Nothing changes, one of them will always be a thorn in our flesh. You can’t change history. Rather than isolating City, Liverpool or Arsenal, one of them will be a thorn in our flesh whether we like it or not.
Can you see City winning the FA Cup last season being a catalyst?
Yes, I think winning a trophy does that. It does a power of good. It takes the pressure off the manager and gives confidence to the players. We’ve experienced it ourselves over the years and we expect them to be challengers this season.
Do you expect a serious challenge from Liverpool this season?
I don’t know. I definitely think there will be an improvement, obviously, but it’s a hard league and a difficult one to win.What do you make of Chelsea’s decision to give the job to a manager who is so young?
Well, it was a surprise, he’s just a young lad. I started at 32 but all I had was a physio. The difference is that he can choose a staff of whatever he wants. He can bring a good assistant and good coaches with great experience. That will help him and Chelsea have also got the most experienced side in the league with the number of older players they have — Didier Drogba, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, Ashley Cole.
Is it harder because of comparisons to Jose Mourinho?
Yes, but you never knew whether Jose could do it at the time and he proved a man of his time really, didn’t he?Is it fair to say Arsenal are at a crossroads now?
Look, you thought they were going to have a real chance last season. They got to the very brink and that means they’re going to be challengers this season. But it’s not easy to win the league. We waited 26 years at one point. It’s 20 years since Liverpool last won it. It happens sometimes.
But Arsenal’s challenge seems to have faded a little?
That’s one way (of looking at it) but, honestly, you’ve got to remember the way that Jose arrived and Chelsea all of a sudden won their first six games in a row and we were all chasing our bloody tails. I think Arsenal got caught in the draught that Chelsea created. And of course not winning the title for six or seven years has put a pressure on them.
But it’s cyclical. The Barcelona team is a team of its time and it’s a cycle for them, a fantastic cycle. You can’t really see it changing for the next two or three years.
Are Barca a completely different challenge to any you've had?
We will try to move on and get above them, but the target is to be in Munich (for the Champions League final) in May next year.
Out of ideas: Barcelona have twice in three years proved to be a bridge too far for United'
In hindsight, would you have done things differently against them?
There’s no point going into that now. We’ve done our research and looked at the game a million times — it’s just one of those things.
Does winning that 19th title but losing to Barca again mean Europe is the main target this season?
You have to combine the two. The Premier League is such a tribal confrontation between different parts of the country that you’re forced into trying to beat them all the time. You can’t get away from that. I’m sorry, you can’t.
It’s not like athletics where you can programme yourself to win the one-mile at Oslo and then maybe wait until Stuttgart five months later to win there. We play every seven days so you’re forced to go for the league.
I’ve got absolutely no doubt Real Madrid would give up anything to win the European Cup. I think AC Milan did that. They were concentrating on trying to equal Madrid with those nine European titles.
You can do it in these countries because the European Cup is the most important thing. But our mentality is different. I’ve got to try and show that we’re challenging for the league all the time, and hopefully have the bonus of winning the European Cup. We’ve only won it twice in my time so that shows it’s not easy to combine the two.
Kings of Europe: Ferguson is desperate to add to the two Champions League triumphs he has already experienced, but admits domestic pressure can be telling'
There haven’t been any huge transfers yet this summer. Do you see that changing before the window closes?
I think there will be action before the end of the transfer window, I’m certain of that.
Will the financial fair play rules make a difference?
I’ve no bloody idea! Honestly. It doesn’t affect me so I’m quite happy. I’m not the slightest bit interested in it.
After such a good first season, just how good can Hernandez be?
He’s not going to change from what he is. He’s as good a player as I’ve ever dealt with in the penalty box, in terms of movement, space and decision making. He’s brilliant with those qualities.
When I watched him play for Mexico in the Gold Cup, the change in him was fantastic in terms of how he was linking play and spinning his defender. One of the goals he scored, the centre back went to check him, but he stepped away from him, went round the back and he was in. Goal. Brilliant. His decision making is terrific that way, but I’m sure he will go on to improve and make himself a better player.
Buy of the century: Javier Hernandez was a revelation in his debut season'
How close are you to getting a midfielder to replace Paul Scholes?
There’s nothing on the horizon with that, so we just carry on with the players we have.
Can you clarify the situation with Wesley Sneijder. Are Inter Milan putting up too many barriers?
I’m not going to talk about that, it’s not an issue. It’s just difficult.
Are you happy to go into the season without that key midfielder?
We’re all searching for that. Everybody is searching for the special player who makes the difference. We have more than capable midfield players, so we will carry on.
A kiss goodbye: The likes of Paul Scholes and Gary Neville need to be replaced'
Scholesy was starting to feel his legs last season and it made it difficult to play him in really big games. I think he made the right decision. We would have liked him to carry on and play 25 games next season, but he didn’t want that. He’s so proud that he wanted to play every game and he couldn’t.
Scholes has said Wayne Rooney could fill his role. Do you agree?
Scholesy is being very generous there. He’s under-estimating himself and the value he had to us. Wayne could play centre midfield but not the way that Scholesy played it. They are too different.
The way that Wayne would play as opposed to Scholesy is that he would be more dynamic and all over the place, using his energy to run everywhere, challenge and hit those crossfield passes that he’s terrific at. But Scholes was more calculated and he always had that control about him, controlling the speed and pace of a game, which is pretty difficult to do. He was an absolute one-off. You will never replace Scholes.
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