The 70th birthday which appeared no more than a dot on the
horizon while Ferguson sat in Basle has now arrived, but business
is business and, with three points and a place at the top of the
Premier League at stake against Blackburn on Saturday , there was
no misty-eyed reflection on his milestone when the subject came up
at his press conference on Friday.
“I’m not getting into that,” Ferguson said. “I’m fed up with
birthdays. Wait until you get to 70 and you will understand what
I’m talking about.”
Ferguson, of course, had told anybody willing to listen three
years ago that he would only be celebrating his 70th birthday as
the former United manager.
“I won’t be doing a Bobby Robson and be a manager when I am 70,”
Ferguson said, in October 2008. “But football is a drug which is
difficult to give up.” Three years on, the Scot is clearly still
hooked and his most recent pronouncement on his planned retirement
date hinted at “another three or four years yet”.
But the only true pointer to Ferguson’s age is his birth
certificate and, once that is taken out of the equation, you have a
man who appears to be in his managerial prime, one who appears more
vigorous, hungry and effervescent than rivals even half his
age.
Whether it is 3am and he is at passport control at Manchester
Airport following a European tie, or 9.20 on a Friday morning, 10
minutes early for his own press conference, Ferguson always appears
more alert and eager to move on than those around him.
One psychological barometer of a man’s character is the measure
and forcefulness of his stride. Men of power and purpose march
powerfully and quickly, often with their subordinates trailing
behind. Ferguson, even at 70, continues to march with intent rather
than amble along like a pensioner five years beyond retirement
age.
But this is the man who continues to embody the myth of arriving
at United’s Carrington training ground before the birds have even
started tweeting. He may no longer unlock the gates, but he expects
his daily synopsis of the back pages to be delivered to his desk no
later than 8.30am each day.
Ferguson is as active at dusk as he is at dawn, with no second
thought given to a scouting trip at home or abroad or an appearance
at a tribute dinner for a contemporary who has long since beaten
him into retirement.
“You say to yourself, what happens when you retire? What do you
do?” Ferguson remarked earlier this year. “I’m at the stage now
where I say that retirement is for young people. My pals in
Glasgow, one retired 10 years ago and he travels all the time,
which is terrific.
“But you can do something else when you’re younger because you
have your youth. Retirement is such a difficult thing. I made a
mistake some years ago because I thought my 60th birthday was a
good time to retire and maybe it was time for a younger
manager.
“But there are no plans for me to retire. No plan. I hope my
health stays as it is so that I can carry on.”
Ferguson claims to have “always had good energy” and, having
tasted life outside football as an apprentice toolmaker in the
Govan shipyards prior to running a Glasgow pub, his work ethic
clearly stems from his formative years.
But at 70, his DNA remains the same as ever and it will not
change, just as he explained in a dressing-room address to his
United players last season. “He just started talking about how
people had been saying he was going to retire,” Patrice Evra
recalls.
“He asked us if we seriously thought he would just be sitting in
his house watching the TV and doing nothing. He said: 'No chance. I
have worked all my life and I will work until I die.’ For a moment
he laughed. And then he said, 'This is my victory. I cannot walk
away from this.’ ”