Fergie the best man to take on Fergie

You’ll probably have noticed, given the torrent of coverage, that Alex Ferguson talks about himself in the third person quite a bit in his new book.

David Beckham “thought he was bigger than Alex Ferguson”. Alex Ferguson employed backroom staff who “were 100% Alex Ferguson”. Alex Ferguson looked in the mirror and “put on the Alex Ferguson face”. Alex Ferguson liked to see Alex Ferguson in his teams.

In lesser managers — O’Leary or Keegan or Paolo Di Canio’s Paolo Di Canio — this kind of affectation might be seized upon as a sign of vanity or even weakness; the appointment of a second self to cop the flak.