I'M SCARED TO QUIT

Yet the fear still lingers. What the hell will there be left for him without the security blanket of Old Trafford?

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Ferguson has witnessed first-hand the consequences of retirement after decades obsessionally devoted to a cause.

The memory of his father still casts a long shadow. "The big fear is what do you do with yourself when you retire," he confessed as he sipped champagne left over from the Moscow celebrations. "The problem is when you wake up at six in the morning and think, ‘Oh, I'm finished, I don't do this any more'.

"There are too many cases of people who retire and end up in a box soon after because they have taken away the very thing that makes them alive and keeps them alive.

"I remember my dad's 65th birthday. The Fairfield's shipyard gave him a big dinner up in Glasgow. There were 400 people with employers and employees there. It was a big night for dad, that.

"I was in Aberdeen at the time and it was a Friday night. And the next week my mother phones and says your dad has gone for an X-ray because he has pains in his chest.

Retirement

"It was cancer. A week, just one week after his retirement."

Ferguson senior died within a year.

It still, obviously, has a big impact on Fergie. Yet as quickly as the sombre reflection surfaced, it was dismissed. After all, there is still much work to be done before he slips into the retirement.

Before he leaves the Old Trafford stage he has dominated so massively for 22 years, Sir Alex has set himself one final task.

He wants to make United the biggest, most successful and best-supported club in the world and ensure they can keep and attract star players like Cristiano Ronaldo.

He intends to leave behind a legacy that will stand as a monument to his achievements with United and become a magnet for the world's top stars.

And his plans include turning Old Trafford into an even bigger stadium with an 80,000-plus capacity.

He said: "It's like what has been happening in the past 20 or 30 years with the corner shops being engulfed by the supermarkets.

"We don't want to be a small shop. I would hate to think Real Madrid can ride roughshod over us when it comes to players.

"Yeah, they courted Van Nistelrooy and his agent courted Real Madrid. It was a marriage made in hell.

"The minute Van Nistelrooy signed a new contract with us, it was a certainty he was leaving here — an absolute certainty. His only one idea was to get to Real Madrid. Good. We wanted him to go.

"We also wanted to sell Beckham, but we won't sell Ronaldo.

"Hey, believe me Cristiano will not go away in the next two years at least.

Respect

"He knows what's best for him. The training ground here - you lot call it Colditz. That is for a reason. No one can get in. We can enjoy ourselves here.

"We can relax. The entertainment the players can get for themselves and from other players - you go to Real Madrid and there will be 3,000 supporters watching training every day. The Press are there, the TV is there, it is a jungle.

"When Ronaldo becomes 25 or 26 he may have a different view on life and he may want a change. I won't go against him in that respect.

"What we have to try and do is make sure we are bigger. We can't rest on what we did on Wednesday.

"I'm on to David Gill all the time about the stadium. I know what we can do in the main stand — at both ends you could build a structure up and across. We could do one corner at least and maybe get another 6,500 seats to take us to 83,000.

"We could fill it. I think we could get 100,000 in but it's not feasible architecturally to get to that size but we could build that structure.

"It would at least make us bigger than anyone could get near in England.

"The only thing I can do is to produce a winning team.

"The only thing that matters to me is that black type — the winner's name. We want to be playing in European Cup finals."

As well as keeping Ronaldo, Fergie's other short-term objective is to get the most out of Wayne Rooney.

Fantastic

He admits the England star is often too unselfish for his own good and that he wants to make sure he accommodates him in a role that can benefit both player and team.

Sir Alex said: "Sometimes Wayne is too much of a team player. He's not a selfish player and he's not a selfish boy.

"He's a committed winner, that's his problem, so he does a lot of sacrifice which doesn't reflect on his overall performance. But as a team player he is absolutely fantastic.

"He's said to me half a dozen times: ‘I'll play centre-half. I played centre-half at school you know.'

"Then I say to him: ‘Yes Wayne, but we're playing against Drogba!' It's not a trouble or a problem with him. It's a fantastic asset.

"We know what we are going to have to do and work with Wayne in terms of his right position because even now I'm not so sure what his right position is sometimes.

"He's fantastic when he's aggressive up front but when he drops in he offers you so many options with his balance and working out situations quickly. He's brilliant at that.

"So we have to try and make up our minds on that but it would help me if we could get another main striker in which would help the situation, someone possibly with height."

Fergie's mind might be on retirement but it is still working overtime on what is best for United, what is best for his players and what history he can leave behind.

It promises to be an eventful few years before he walks out of Old Trafford for the last time.