Old Trafford Name New Sir Alex Stand

Manchester United have renamed the North Stand at Old Trafford the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand in recognition of his 25 years as manager of the club.

Ferguson was given a guard of honour by his own players and visitors Sunderland as he made his way on to the pitch for Saturday's Premier League game.

The club also announced that a statue of the Scot would go outside the stand before the start of next season.

Ferguson, 69, succeeded Ron Atkinson as United manager on 6 November 1986.

Chief executive David Gill announced that the stand was to be named in Ferguson's honour on the pitch before the match against Sunderland, which United won 1-0 thanks to an own goal from their former defender Wes Brown.

Following a standing ovation from the crowd, the manager declared his pride at working for "the best club in the world".

After the match Ferguson said he was honoured to have had the stand named after him. "It was a surprise for me today, I didn't expect that," he told BBC Sport.

"I felt really honoured and emotional when I saw my name on that stand. I must say thank you to the club for that. My assistant didn't tell me - so he's sacked!"

When asked for the most memorable moment of his 25 years in charge, Ferguson said: "I'll never forget Barcelona [1999]. Never."

Ferguson Lives a 25 year Fairytale

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has described his 25 years in charge at the club as "a fairytale".

Ferguson, 70 in December, has won 12 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, two Champions Leagues and a Cup Winners' Cup at Old Trafford.

"It is a bit of a fairytale to last so long," said the Scot, who joined United from Aberdeen in 1986.

"It has been a fantastic spell for me. It is something you don't think is going to happen and I appreciate that."

Despite his incredible achievement at the highest level of English football, Ferguson has never been comfortable discussing past glories.

Even when quizzed about his milestone on Thursday, he started with his oft-repeated phrase: "I am not getting into that."

But on Thursday the 69-year-old did allow himself the briefest of reflections on a career that has brought him glory way beyond what anyone could have imagined when he succeeded Ron Atkinson on 6 November 1986.

Since then, Ferguson has lifted 27 trophies and overseen the rise of numerous world-class players.

"When I look back I say to myself how fortunate I am to have had these players," he stated.

"The list is incredible, going back to the very start with Bryan Robson, Norman Whiteside, Brian McClair, [Mark] Hughes, [Paul] Ince, [Roy] Keane, [Eric] Cantona. What a collection of players. They were fantastic players.

"It is hard to think I controlled all these players for so long. Now to the present era of players we see today, different personalities and different cultures."

Ferguson famously set out to "knock Liverpool off their perch", a target he achieved last season when United edged ahead of the Reds by securing their 19th top-flight crown.

Attention will inevitably turn to how long he can go on, to which he commented: "I will continue as long as I feel healthy enough to do it."

SIR ALEX STATS

Ferguson will mark his 25 years in charge of Manchester United on Sunday, having taken over at Old Trafford on November 6, 1986

He has won 836, drawn 326 and lost 247 of his 1,409 matches, scoring 2579 goals and conceding 1262

Ferguson Closes on Goethals Record

Ferguson at official press conference 

Sir Alex Ferguson will consolidate his position as the second oldest coach to win a major UEFA club competition if Manchester United FC prevail against FC Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League final, with the manager due to be 69 years and 148 days old at Wembley this Saturday. 

Only Raymond Goethals, who led Olympique de Marseille to glory in the 1992 final when he was closing in on 72, can be counted as an older final contender.

The Scotsman thinks that experience is now a major factor in his side's favour too. "We've gathered an experience over the last few years that has acquitted us well for European football now," he said. "We're far more patient away from home and we never used to be. European football does that and I think the players have learned that the concentration levels have to be very, very good because every club has a different way of playing and a different sense and style of the tempo in matches.

"Sometimes in a European game, you can be doing actually quite well and then the roof falls in, suddenly," added Sir Alex. "Many of our players are used to that now. They don't get caught out by sudden attacks against them the way that they used to years ago."

Having started his collection with a Scottish second-tier title won with Saint Mirren FC in 1977, the one-time Rangers FC forward has now won 47 trophies in all competitions. He made his big breakthrough in European terms with Aberdeen FC, leading them to an implausible 2-1 win against Real Madrid CF in the 1983 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final.

"It was a bit of a fairy tale with Aberdeen; players who had all grown up together, developed and matured together, young players together and all Scottish players," he recalled. "Real had some great players at the time and it was a great achievement and also, it whetted your appetite to do well in European football."

He started to add to his continental haul when he won the same competition with United, beating Barcelona in 1991. "That's always been the target: to do well in Europe," said the man who won the continent's top prize with United in 1999 and 2008. "We should have won the European Cup more times and although we've been in the Champions League final three times in four years, we should have done better in previous years."

Sir Alex can only hope his side make some amends for that on Saturday against the team that beat them 2-0 in the 2009 decider. He recalled: "We could have been a couple of goals up in the first 15 minutes but when we lost the goal, there was an indication of how Barcelona play today because [Lionel] Messi was a central striker on that particular day with [Samuel] Eto'o playing wide right and Thierry Henry wide left.

"Messi was playing through the middle until they scored and then they played without the central striker which now they do a lot, and they did in the semi-final against Real Madrid," added Sir Alex. "That was a kernel of the new Barcelona, their performance that night. Since then, they have improved massively as well – their performances have been outstanding so going into the game, they're a better team than when they beat us 2-0."

Oldest UEFA club competition winning coaches

71y 231d: Raymond Goethals (Olympique de Marseille, 1993 UEFA Champions League)

66y 142d: Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United FC, 2008 UEFA Champions League)

64y 85d: Sir Bobby Robson (FC Barcelona, 1997 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup)

64y 78d: Joe Fagan (Liverpool FC, 1984 European Champion Clubs' Cup)

63y 295d: Mircea Lucescu (FC Shakhtar Donetsk, 2009 UEFA Cup)

Oldest European Champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League winning coaches

71y 231d: Raymond Goethals (Olympique de Marseille, 1993 UEFA Champions League)

66y 142d: Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United FC, 2008 UEFA Champions League)

64y 78d: Joe Fagan (Liverpool FC, 1984 European Champion Clubs' Cup)

62y 124d: Bob Paisley (Liverpool FC, 1981 European Champion Clubs' Cup) 

62y 50d: Béla Guttman* (SL Benfica, 1962 European Champion Clubs' Cup)

Ferguson Sees No Twitter Player Appeal

Ferguson in Twitter Haze

Sir Alex Ferguson has launched a withering attack on social networking website Twitter and hinted that players at Manchester United could be banned from using it.

Club captain Rio Ferdinand is one of the most prolific users of Twitter among the United squad and has attracted nearly a million followers.

Team mate Wayne Rooney also has a large numbers of followers tweeting repliers on his observations about life. Michael Owen and Nani are other members of the United squad that use Twitter.

Rooney found himself in the headlines for the wrong reasons this week when he threatened a respondent who had himself been abusive, although he said later his threat was not meant to be taken seriously.

Team-mate Darron Gibson took himself off Twitter after barely two hours last month when he received abuse from United fans.

Ferguson confirmed the club were looking at how best to solve those problems but the 69-year-old simply does not understand why anyone would want to be involved in the first place.

“I don’t understand it to be honest with you,” he said. “I don’t know why anybody can be bothered with that kind of stuff. How do you find the time to do that? There are a million things you can do in your life without that.

“Get yourself down to the library and read a book. Seriously.

“It is a waste of time.

“It seems to have a certain momentum at the moment. Everyone seems to want to do it.”

Ferguson certainly thinks anyone with a high profile needs to act with a huge degree of caution.

“It is responsibility. They are responsible for their actions,” he said. “We as a club are looking at it because there can be issues attached to it. And we don’t want that.”

When it was pointed out Twitter can bring players closer to supporters, Ferguson was equally scathing.

“It would be better if they did it on the pitch.”

In a separate development a Premiership footballer is today suing Twitter after details of a super-injunction he obtained were published on the micro-blogging site.

The married player issued legal proceedings against Twitter, a US based company, and "persons unknown" on Wednesday in what is expected to become a landmark case.

He was one of a number of celebrities who were identified by an anonymous user on Twitter earlier this month as having obtained super-injunctions to hide alleged affairs. The list of celebrities has since been forwarded to an estimated 2 million people.

Twitter, which has millions of users worldwide, is based in the United States and so is it outside the jurisdiction of the UK courts.