LONDON: Alex Ferguson has quashed retirement talk by revealing he has no plans to step down as Manchester United manager in the near future.
Ferguson, who turned 71 on Monday, has been forced to deal with questions about his retirement plans since the time he reversed his decision to leave the club in 2002.
With Pep Guardiola due to end his post-Barcelona sabbatical in a few months, Jose Mourinho tipped to leave Real Madrid and David Moyes’ Everton contract close to expiring, three of the main candidates to replace Ferguson could be available at the end of the season, prompting a new round of speculation about the Scot’s future.
But Ferguson, who has been in charge at Old Trafford since 1986, marked the new year by making it clear he won’t be leaving United for some while.
“I’m hoping to stay on for a bit of time,” he said in an interview with the Abu Dhabi Sports channel.
It is widely accepted few will get to know when Ferguson is ready to call it a day, with chief executive David Gill the man tasked with advising the Glazer family about a replacement.
And, though Guardiola, Mourinho and Moyes are bound to be at the top of the list if they are available, Ferguson knows plenty of other candidates are likely to have emerged by the time he finally quits.
“It’s very difficult,” Ferguson said. “Over the years, names have been bandied about but football is such a precarious industry.
“But you could be talking about one of the potentially exciting young managers in the game, but is he going to be here in two or three years’ time?
“The sack race is horrendous. Sometimes a manager can only survive four games if he doesn’t win a match.
“Top managers will always been in demand but nobody knows where they are going to be in two or three years’ time.”
Meanwhile, Celtic captain Scott Brown says the club will look to head into the Scottish Premier League winter break with a victory against Motherwell today.
The Parkhead side’s five-game winning run came to an abrupt end on Saturday when Hibernian defeated Neil Lennon’s side 1-0 at Easter Road. The Hoops had been in good form before the loss to the Edinburgh side and still hold a six point lead - with a game in hand - at the top of the SPL table.
Brown hopes the defeat was just a minor blip which they can rectify when third-placed Motherwell visit Parkhead.
“Hibs stopped our unbeaten record but we need to get the mentality of winning back when we play at Celtic Park on Wednesday,” the Scotland midfielder said.
“Hopefully it will get our confidence back up - we played really well against Hibs, we just didn’t have the quality in the last third.
“They scored an early goal and that killed us off. But we had about 75 per cent of the possession in the second half, and had our chances, we just couldn’t finish.”
Today’s visitors have only lost once in their past nine matches on their charge up the table to third.
And after tasting defeat to fourth-placed Hibs, Brown knows his side will need to be wary of Stuart McCall’s side.
“They’re doing really well,” he said. “They started their season really well then had a dip, but they’re going well again so we know it will be a tough game.
“They’ve got good young players, Jamie Murphy is a great player with all the tricks in the world, so we’re definitely going to have to be on the lookout for him. It will be hard but hopefully there will be a big crowd and we can get back to winning ways.” AGENCIES
