Ferguson sets 84-point title target

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Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed the secret that underpins his stellar career in football management - leave no room for self-doubt.

It is not a trait anyone tends to think of when discussing the Manchester United manager, whose side took another step towards a record 19th league title with their 3-1 win over Aston Villa on Tuesday.

Rightly or wrongly, Ferguson often leaves no room for manoeuvre when a decision has been made and rare are the times he corrects them. To some, such a dogmatic attitude can be seen as weakness. However, in one of the most high-pressured jobs anywhere, Ferguson insists it is the only way to be.

"I very seldom have self-doubt,'' said the United boss in an exclusive interview with ESPN. "The thing I always think about making a decision is not to have any doubts about it.

"Why go to your bed at night-time having doubts? Be clear. You must have clarity in your decision-making. What is right and what is wrong. To me it is black and white. I try to erase doubts.''

Such is Ferguson's public profile that he admits myths have grown up around him that get bigger as time goes on. There was a point when he was furious about such stories - such as the claim he used to go behind the stand at East Stirling to practise swearing.

However, his three sons are more laid-back and have urged their 69-year-old father to be the same. Some traits remain though, including the intense work ethic that he developed during his youth in Govan.

"Your character and work ethic doesn't change,'' he said. "It is part of you and I like to see it in my players.''

That DNA is one of the reasons Ferguson has been so successful. Yet clearly, with 11 championships and two European Cups among a trophy collection unmatched in the English game, there is no motivation to be gained from a fear of failure.

"It was with me when I was young,'' he said. "Every manager knows the name of the game. You have to be successful. That drives a lot of people on. Who wants to fail? Now I am integrated into this club, which brings a responsibility to win. That is more accurate than the fear of failure that was there in the early days.''

And, at an age when most men are trying to find ways of filling their days, Ferguson's ceaseless desire for more gets him out of bed every morning, occupying his mind to an extent there is simply no time for what has gone before.

"You can't dismiss the history of Manchester United,'' he said. "That was one of the things I wanted to bring back. That was the challenge. But I never think about what I have won. I don't have time for that.

"There is a certain vanity about it anyway. What has served me well over the years is keeping my feet on the ground. Humility is an important aspect of your life and should not be dismissed.''

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Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that the sales of Phil Neville and Nicky Butt represented two of the toughest decisions of his 24-year Manchester United tenure.

Neville and Butt were part of a group of United academy graduates known as 'Fergie's Fledglings', youth-team players who were given an early first-team break by Ferguson and went on to become the backbone of the club's successful sides of the 1990s and early 2000s.

But as part of the evolution of Ferguson's side in the mid-noughties, the United boss allowed Butt to leave the club for Newcastle in 2004 and Phil Neville to join Everton in 2005 as he rebuilt a new team.

And Ferguson admits that letting the pair - who played 98 England internationals between them - leave the club was a real wrench.

"It's a horrible part of the job, Ferguson told ESPN in an exclusive interview. "You become a family really, you protect them that way your father would with his son. It hurt me terribly at the time because they were fantastic professionals with Manchester United roots.

"Phil Neville and Nicky Butt were part of the start here there's no question about that, people may identify Manchester United in many ways, by the great players they've had, by the players that were signed but the real secret is the players who have brought that spirit to Manchester United; Phil Neville and Nicky Butt were part of that.

"When the time came for me to advise them to move on because when they weren't playing regularly, it wasn't easy for me it wasn't easy for them. So the advice I gave them was 'look you really need to get regular football in'... we did the best we could for them and I think we got them good moves.

Ferguson believes that he has had to adapt his approach to dealing with players over the years, and says the modern-day footballer needs more careful handling than those in years gone by.

"You must change, you have to adopt,adapt to the changes to the individuals and the characters of the people we deal with now," Ferguson said. "It's a different human being we're dealing with now, it's a much more fragile human being.

"The people I'm dealing with nowadays seem to be more cocooned by their pay or their agents or their egos so you have a different person all together. So dealing with that you have to be different."

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While Chelsea have been busy spending big in the transfer market, Sir Alex Ferguson has been plotting how Manchester United can win the 84 points he believes will take the title away from Stamford Bridge.

Premier League leaders United need to take 30 points from their remaining 14 games if they are to reach Ferguson's target, but given they could set a club record of 30 league games unbeaten, stretching back to last season, at bottom club Wolves on Saturday, it would not seem to be an unreasonable goal.

Ferguson said: "Consistency is the key and over the last two months it has been very good. Consistency is the thing that gives you the extra yard or extra belief. They trust each other. You have to trust each other. They can look around the dressing room and we have some battled-hardened professionals who have been through the course many many times.

"We are going to find that in the run-in there are going to be some interesting games for Manchester United. We have a little lead but that can vanish overnight. Manchester City are in a challenging position in that top four. Chelsea, Arsenal, ourselves and Tottenham, we are all in there battling. Our job is to retain that consistency and relish what we are going to experience. This is a great time to play football knowing you have an opportunity to win the league.''

Ferguson says he is "surprised but not amazed'' by spiralling transfer fees in the Premier League. The United boss admitted he was looking to make one signing in the January transfer window but it did not come to fruition. Instead he looked on as Liverpool's Fernando Torres moved to Chelsea for £50million and Newcastle's Andy Carroll switched to Anfield for £35million.

Ferguson said: "We have bought in January in the past. We tried one bit of business but it didn't work. Identification is the first thing. The second is getting the value. It is very difficult in today's market. You can be surprised at what happened but not amazed because the Premier League is such a high-profile industry throughout the world. It is the biggest league in the world. I think the highest transfer outside the Premier League in the window was £3million. That shows you the gulf in the spending in other countries.''

Looking to Saturday's game, Ferguson expects a rough ride from Mick McCarthy's Wolves, who only lost to Bolton after a late Daniel Sturridge goal.

"Mick McCarthy by his nature is a fighter and his team are fighters so we expect a tough game, '' said the United boss. "I watched them against Bolton and I felt for Mick, I really did. It was devastating to lose that goal the way they did in the last minute of the game.''

Ferguson is now hoping Wayne Rooney can now find the consistency that saw him score 34 times last season. A brace in the victory against Aston Villa, only his fourth and fifth goals of the campaign, would suggest he could be ready to kick on.

Ferguson said: "There was no way Wayne wasn't going to play on Tuesday. He and Dimitar Berbatov have a good understanding. Hopefully - and there's every chance with scoring the kind of goals he scored the other night - he'll take off. Goalscorers are like that and hopefully that's what we're going to see with Wayne. He's got 14 league games, European games and FA Cup games - he could easily get a good average. Last season he was very consistent - in previous years he has scored in clutches of five or six games. But if he can get the consistency of last season then we are going to benefit from that.''

Scotland midfielder Darren Fletcher is not taking Wolves lightly, despite the gulf between the two sides on the ladder.

Fletcher said: "People might not expect us to lose at Wolves but we have got to be very cautious. The performances they have produced haven't really got them the points they deserve. I think they have been mighty unlucky in a lot of games.

"They've had some good results against the bigger teams like Liverpool and Chelsea. We know it's going to be a very difficult match. Five or six years ago we experienced a loss at Wolves when we were sitting top of the league, so it just goes to show that you have to be wary and be on top of your game.''