In recent years, big decisions have gone against us and have been costly, but after going on equal points with City at the at top, Ferguson is keen for us to get a win on Sunday.

“We’ve done very well away from home this season and we need to be good from now on,” he said. “We’ve got some really important away games in the run-in – Chelsea, Tottenham and City. They’re going to be crucial games. Games at Chelsea in the last few years have been tough and we’ve had terrible luck there which has caused us disappointing results. But the players know what they need to do. They know their responsibilities and the standard and expectation at the club, and they have to carry those things with them when they go into games.”

Whilst not naming Ravel Morrison, it could be interpreted as a dig at the troublesome youngster, whose poor attitude has almost put an end to his Manchester United career.

“He has a good attitude, although he should have, he’s a young player with an opportunity at Manchester United,” said Ferguson. “That’s one of the reasons you pick these players, because they show their temperament as they come through the youth programmes and the reserves. I am always confident about their temperament, their attitude to the game and their enthusiasm to play. In terms of judging young players, I don’t think we’ve ever failed in that respect.”

Or maybe the manager is intending to use to motivate Morrison?

The most recent example came a few weeks ago when the manager fined our top earner, Wayne Rooney, and dropped him from the squad after coming to Carrington unfit to train following an evening out.

“I said it to the directors 15 years ago, maybe more than 15 years ago: You have to remember that the most important person at Manchester United is the manager,” said Ferguson. “The minute a footballer becomes more important than the manager, your club is dead – the history of this club goes down the drain. I am the most important man at Manchester United. It has to be that way.”

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Thanks to Andrew Kilduff

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My hero was Denis Law; as a player I loved Denis Law even though he is only a couple of years older than me. He epitomised to me everything about a Scotsman. He could start a row in an empty house, fight his own shadow, unbelievable courage, electric pace, exciting and dynamic to watch – I always loved Denis as a player. Also as I was growing up there were a couple of Rangers players like Willy Woodburn and Willy Waddell, who were great Rangers players of the time. As I got older and got more involved in football Dennis Law was a great Scottish player.

Who is the most talented player you’ve ever worked with?

Well there are so many at the club, even during my Aberdeen days there were some very talented players. United has been very lucky with a 25year spell; Norman Whiteside was a fantastic talent, Cantona, Ronaldo, Giggs, Rooney, Scholes and having Beckham. There is an incredible array of talent and I always try to make this point. I always think that it is always forwards, who can entertain and win games, and although we have had fantastic defenders, for me, they don’t come in the same category when you are talking about great players, because I think about the players that have entertained and have great courage to play the game and I think that is the deciding factor.

Are there any of those or maybe other players you could pick out as being the best player in the 20 years of the Premier League?

I think we have a few in that category without question because our success is unequalled in the Barclays Premier League. There is no club that has created the success we have. So when people say who are the best players in the Premier League?… they have to come from Manchester United without question as far as I am concerned.

Outside of football who is the person you admire the most and why?

There are a few iconic names that come into it. I met Nelson Mandela and listened to one of his speeches many years ago and the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up, it was fantastic. I think without doubt he was a great man of his time without question.

In terms of sport the greatest sportsman as far as I am concerned is Muhammad Ali. I think his stance against going to war maybe elevated him to that status but as far as a boxer he was phenomenal. I remember every time he had a fight I would get up early morning and go to the cinema in Glasgow or Aberdeen to watch his fights at three or four in the morning. He was such an attraction in that respect. I had the pleasure of meeting him once but by that time he had Parkinson’s and it was a struggle for him to even talk, but he is in terms of sport and Mandela in terms of his status in life and what he meant to the world was very important.

Also JFK, I look at JFK and his period as President of America. There is a lot of criticism about him of course as you understand it because everyone gets that kind of criticism, but he had to deal with five issues that no other President of America had to deal with. He had to deal with the Cuban crisis, he had the cold war at the time and Vietnam, the race issue in the south, the Medicare which has always been a big problem in America. He had those five important issues during the time of his presidency which only lasted three years. He must have been an incredible charismatic figure to be around at that time.

In terms of my own personal Scottish connections Jimmy Reid in Glasgow. I think what he meant to social justice and his time as a human being was phenomenal. His speech as the rector of Glasgow University was printed in full in the New York Times, and regarded as one of the greatest speeches of all time. He had a big impact on the people in my area in Glasgow, Govan, where he meant a lot to the workers who he stood up for.

Who would be your dream dinner party guests?

I would definitely have to start getting a few Hollywood actresses in there for Gods sake! (laughs)There is a few isn’t there. I think that Marilyn Monroe would be great company. I love the new movies and great actors. Spencer Tracy was a great actor or Gregory Peck, all the older actors of my time as I grew up as a youth. I loved those kinds of actors. Susan Hayward was a great favourite of mine, but if you are talking about sitting down at a dinner table then if you could get Mandela, Muhammad Ali, JFK Kennedy, maybe Sinatra just to add a bit of spice to it you would have a fantastic table. Jimmy Reid just to cause trouble… it would be a great table.

What food would you serve?

It would have to be Pasta; Sinatra wouldn’t sit down unless it was a pasta; pasta and fish.

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For more insight from Sir Alex Ferguson and other leading managers plus exclusive Premier League highlights go to www.yahoo.co.uk/sport

Ferguson claimed he was lucky to have managed so many great players who have helped him achieve the success he’s had.

“It is an honour for me in the twilight of my life and very, very much appreciated,” said Ferguson. “I have been a very, very lucky manager to have had so many good players who have shared my vision and passion, and that’s what makes Manchester United such a special club. They retain the courage to play, the courage to try and win. You don’t always win in football – sometimes you lose but we always try to win.”

Despite refusing to apologise to Evra, reports in the press claimed that Liverpool wanted to engage in “peace talks” with United. It was a strange claim, given that just a few days ago their official statement on the matter essentially accused our club of fabricating the whole case to get Suarez banned.

“This case has provided a template in which a club’s rival can bring about a significant ban for a top player without anything beyond an accusation.”

Unsurprisingly, Sir Alex Ferguson was dismissive of this today.

“It is nice of them to do it through the press,” said Ferguson. “You would have thought they would come to Manchester United first. I do not see why there is any need for it. But I have nothing to say about it.”

The referee, Mike Jones, initially indicated that a corner should be awarded, before the linesman flagged for a penalty.

Ferguson criticised the linesman and reflected on an equally poor decision by an official at the end of the 2009-2010 season against Chelsea, when Didier Drogba scored the match-winning goal from an offside position.

“Everyone, including the referee, was astounded. He was put in a terrible position. Why can’t the referee overrule it when he is only eight yards away?” Ferguson said. “The problem is that the referees are full-time and the linesmen are not, and whether he ever gets a game again, the assistant referee, is not for me to decide but it was an absolutely shocking decision. It costs you. Two years ago when the linesman gave the offside goal against Chelsea it cost us the league, so hopefully we’re not saying that at the end of May.”

Video of the Rio Ferdinand tackle on Ben Arfa

Scott The Red: How did the book get you in to trouble with Fergie?

Daniel Taylor: You tell me! He has never read it. He asked his press officer to read it on his behalf and the press officer delivered him a report which basically says ‘no problems whatsoever.’ But I guess Fergie’s Fergie isn’t he? He banned me anyway and, once that happens, you try changing his mind.

Either way, it’s not the big deal people think. I’d rather be in, obviously. But all it really means is that I just have to watch the Friday press conferences on MUTV. It doesn’t apply to Champions League or post-match. It’s purely the Friday thing. I don’t understand it properly, but he’s clearly got a bee in his bonnet about it. I emailed the club to say the book was being re-released for his anniversary and when they got round to telling him he went potty apparently. It’s all a bit strange.

STR: Do you reckon you’ll ever be allowed back into his press conference?

DT: It’s been four years now, so I doubt it. The press office think it’s absurd but they would never dare challenge him. They asked me to write to him at one point and when I handed them the letter it was three months before they passed it on. They just don’t want to tackle him.

But listen, Fergie banned MUTV once because one of their presenters said he preferred 4-4-2 to 4-5-1. He banned Sky for asking too many questions and let them back only on condition their reporter didn’t sit on the front row. The man doesn’t operate by normal rules and, yes, it can be exasperating from this side and not what you imagined it would be like when you started in journalism. But this is the monster/genius and it’s still an enjoyable ride. Maybe one day Ferguson might realise he actually gets great press, the weekend just gone being a prime example. But the good still outweighs the bad when you’re covering United and you don’t lose sight of that.

STR: How much stick do you get from rival fans about writing a book on Fergie?

DT: Only a couple of weirdo City fans who seemed to think it meant I was his secret lovechild or something. I couldn’t quite understand the correlation because you’d hardly say Patrick Barclay, Ollie Holt or Michael Crick were close to Ferguson. But Twitter’s full of strange people, isn’t it? I’d quite like to do a City book, to be honest, but the problem is there’s been such a large turnover in personnel over there historically nobody ever sticks around long enough. With Ferguson, there’s 25 years of great material. There’s a story to be done about the City takeover and the rise of the club but I believe someone’s got there before me anyway. And Manchester, the patch, is just too busy anyway these days.

STR: What advice would you give to a journo attending his first Fergie press conference?

DT: It’s always quite amusing seeing a newbie trying to get ‘in’ with him. You can shake his hand, introduce yourself, wear your best suit, the lot – he will just look straight through you and, to be honest, if you’re under the age of 50, he really doesn’t want to know. It’s a trust thing. He’s suspicious of faces he doesn’t know, especially if they have a southern accent (“another one from London coming up here to make his fucking name”). The best thing a new journalist can do is sit there quietly and learn what is, and what is not, accepted. Because the ‘rules’ are complex and if you don’t know them you won’t last long.

STR: On to the manager. What do you think his greatest achievement has been?

DT: The thing that always impresses me the most is just his sheer endurance, the way he defies age. People think he’s old-school and, in a sense, he is because they don’t make them in that mould any more. But then you look at the way he has always moved with the times, the way he has beaten the system and is still maybe three or four years off retiring, and you can’t really find anyone comparable. The bloke’s 70 next month and you can forget sometimes that he had a pacemaker fitted a few years ago. He’s in one of the most gruelling jobs in football, with all the stresses it must bring and, let’s be honest, he likes a glass of wine with his dinner. Yet he seems immune to fatigue. I know how knackered I can feel coming back from tours halfway across the world, or flying straight back after European nights, but the man is pretty much always first in at Carrington, usually before sunrise. A bowl of porridge, maybe half an hour in the gym then into his day’s work. That’s a rare form of energy.

STR: What do you think his lowest moments have been?

DT: He’d probably say it was those moments in late-89 and early-90 when it looked like he might be sacked and the fans were turning on him. That quote stands out from that time, when he was talking about finding it hard to look people in the eye in case it was a United supporter, simply because he felt he was letting everyone down so badly. I was speaking to Pete Molyneux the other day, the supporter who held up the ‘Ta ra Fergie’ banner and it feels faintly ludicrous now thinking back to that time – crowds just over 30,000, a struggling team, Liverpool cleaning up and the beginnings of a proper mutiny against Ferguson.

Since I’ve been covering the club (1998 onwards) the start of the 2005-06 season was probably the most traumatic. There was the Roy Keane thing, ‘Play the Pundit,’ the fall-out, Keane being booted out, that night in Paris when the fans were turning on the players. The team went out of the Champions League at the group stage, not even qualifying for the Europa League (probably a blessing in disguise) The football was pretty dour, the fans were blaming Queiroz (remember Ferguson having to defend him in the programme and the chants of “four-four-two” at the Blackburn game?), people were falling out left, right and centre and it all felt very aggro.

Looking back, it can feel like another end-of-the-empire balls-up from the media. But there was a legitimate question to be asked about where it left Ferguson at that point. The Glazers had only just moved in, so nobody really knew what their intentions were and how patient they would be. Hugh McIlvanney, who was close to Ferguson at the time, was suggesting Ferguson should manouvre his own departure before he is “despatched by remote control.” Fortunately, the only thing you could say about the Glazers is that they kept their nerve and supported him. But Bobby Robson went public at the time and admitted Ferguson had confided to him that he was thinking of packing it all in. Which tells you two things: a) Bobby Robson wasn’t the best person to confide in b) maybe, just maybe, Ferguson is vulnerable to the same insecurities as every one else.

STR: Who have been his best and worst signings?

DT: I’d say Solskjaer was the best when you think he cost so little and the service he gave in return. You could argue a case for Schmeichel, Irwin, Cantona and a few others but Solskjaer would be my pick. Plus he didn’t do too badly with Ronaldo, with a nice £68m profit.

As for the worst, can you look any further than Bebe? He came, he saw and he crossed the ball into the opposite stand, eh? I doubt we’ll ever get to the bottom of that one, to be honest. I used to think it was a Panorama documentary in the making. But someone pretty high at the club has since told me they were willing to take the hit just to keep Jorge Mendes sweet, as they knew he would be useful down the line (Mendes not Bebe). Either way, it’s a pretty unsatisfactory story.

Runners-up spot: I’ll always retain a soft spot for Dong Fangzhou. Long live Dong! I went to Antwerp to interview him once. He didn’t speak a word of English, I didn’t speak Chinese and we sat in a traffic jam on the Antwerp ring road in his Nissan listening to acid house. Good days.

STR: How important was Ferguson’s role in convincing Rooney to stay at United last October?

DT: Crucial, and I’d probably say this was the most impressive I’ve seen Ferguson in his press conferences. He dealt with it brilliantly, to be honest. I just think it’s a shame that, by and large, he opts for deliberate blandness in his press conferences. I’m sure he would tell you he has his reasons. But when he lifts the mask and offers his true feelings, there aren’t many more captivating people in sport. And he nailed it, didn’t he?

It was a combination of great speech-making, strategy and maybe a bit of acting, too. There was never one moment when you lost sight of the fact he was top dog, but he also applied just the right amount of pressure on Rooney to make him change his mind. Rooney’s camp made blunder after blunder and, in the end, I think he lost his nerve. Yes, he got his pay rise, but I don’t go with the theory that it was all a stunt to get more money. City definitely thought they had got him through the Marwood-Stretford connection. “The perfect signing – strengthen yourself, weaken your opponent” – that’s how they put it.

STR: What do you make of Ferguson ending his feud with the BBC?

DT: We probably won’t know what actually happened until Ferguson brings out another book and, even then, it will be heavily weighted in his favour. We knew they were talking but it still came as a surprise, especially as the BBC are adamant there was no apology. It’s not as if Ferguson needed the BBC particularly, so I really couldn’t be sure about his motives. They reckon it’s a lot to do with the BBC moving to Salford but that doesn’t quite stack up to me. Why would he particularly care where they are based? Either way, it was unexpected. Not sure about you, but Match of the Day without Mike Phelan and his plaster feels a strange place.

STR: What importance do you think the recent derby will play in the title race this season?

DT: It was a big thing for City’s mindset, I reckon. They beat United in the FA Cup semi-final. Then they won the final and got rid of all the “35 years” stuff. I just think they know they can win things now and don’t have the inferiority complex of before. The killer time for them will be next spring because, if they’re still at the top, they haven’t been in that position before and it’s bound to get edgy. Will their fans start getting jumpy? And, if so, will it transmit to the players? But right now you have to say they’ve been more than impressive and probably favourites. It could be a strange season at Old Trafford if you can’t close the gap. It’s all very new to everyone and I reckon there’d be some fairly grumpy matches.

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