Fergie: ‘patience and planning’ key to building latest team

MANCHESTER United coach Alex Ferguson has described his young team as “little lions at play” and the United dressing-room as “a theatre of comedy” before Sunday’s lunchtime clash against Liverpool. He also revealed that this season’s impressive side is the result of years of planning and patience and said that his passion for the game remains as strong as ever.

“As you get older sometimes you say, ‘When do I finish?’ and then I see all these young boys out on the training field, and you become invigorated,” he told French tv station Canal Plus.

“I enjoy watching them, because with young people, you get the humour. They are still kids, little lions at play. They like to have fun and enjoy themselves. The dressing-room is the best place in the world. It’s a theatre of comedy.”

Nerves have not been in evidence as United have overturned the five-point gap that Arsenal held just a month ago and, thanks to Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Bolton, are now three points ahead of the Gunners. That gap could increase if Arsenal slip up at Stamford Bridge after the United game — in a match Chelsea must win to stay in contention for the title.

And Ferguson, whose side face Roma in the Champions League quarter-finals next month, has said that United are now reaping the benefits of waiting for Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney to mature into top players. “The difference in this team is we made a conscious decision to start with the youth again, in the sense that to build a team that could last a few years,” he explained.

“For two years we couldn’t really quite get the shape and results that Manchester United expect, so the biggest and best decision we made was to say, ‘Right, we’re going to be patient, we’re going to wait.’ And Ronaldo and Rooney managed to develop fantastically well.”

Other partnerships also helped the team progress while the importance of certain individuals, like Patrice Evra and Edwin van der Sar, has also been key to United’s resurgence. “Important partnerships like between [Nemanja] Vidic and Rio [Ferdinand] started to gel, Evra started to develop, and then you have the core of the team, outside the ones who have been here for years, like Scholes and Giggs, who are institutions.

“And the experience of Van der Sar: although you have a young team, an experienced goalkeeper is so important, and Van der Sar’s personality and career brings a calmness to the defending. He has control of them all and they all listen to him, which is very important.”

United director Bobby Charlton this week paid tribute to Ferguson’s enthusiasm for the job and ability to communicate with his players, while Ferguson insisted the time he spends on the training-ground inspires him. “The best moments come from the joy you feel out on the training field that you get from your players. That’s where in general, you test your capacity to educate them, to train your players; it’s outside of the game, to see how they can improve, judge their technical capacity.”

Ferguson went on to congratulate former United defender Laurent Blanc for making such an impressive start to his coaching career at Bordeaux, who are second in Ligue 1 and have been pushing perennial champions Lyon.

“I’m delighted that Laurent said I gave him the desire to be a manager,” he said. “I remember the times when we used to talk about that. I told him that from the moment you choose this job, your life boils down to just one thing; football. Most of the players come in, train and then go home. The manager has to stay. You work 24 hours a day. Mentally and physically it’s very difficult.”

For all the difficulties, as long as Ferguson continues to enjoy himself, plans for retirement remain on the back-burner. “It’s easy for me [to stay on so long]. It’s easy to come in every morning, I look forward to my job because I’m at the right place,” he added.