FIRED-UP SIR ALEX FERGUSON READY TO FIGHT

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Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson

MANCHESTER CITY may have won this season’s Premier League battles against Sir Alex Ferguson but the war is far from over. And the United boss had plenty of verbal punches to throw ahead of today’s final round, reports JOHN RICHARDSON

It wasn’t quite delivered with the same force as Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the message came over loud and clear as Sir Alex Ferguson warned title favourites Manchester City: “I’ll be back”.

Whatever the final outcome of a scintillating head to head between the Mancunian masters of the Premier League, the 70-year-old claimed his latest challenge – keeping the noisy neighbours at bay – has knocked years off him.

Ferguson confessed before heading off to the North East to face Sunderland that it’s City’s title to lose.

“The odds are stacked against us,” he said, “but this is a club that is never afraid of a challenge.”

Ditto its manager for the past 25 and a half years.

Like the Terminator, Ferguson isn’t going away. The film character famously warned he would be back on being denied entry to a police station. True to his word, he drove a car through the front door.

         You had better tell that lot from across the road that I will still be here next season

Ferguson already has the Manchester United motor revved up for whatever lies ahead.

“Yes, I’m already fired up for next season,” he confirmed.

“You had better tell that lot from across the road that I will still be here next season.

“I don’t mind a challenge. It’s what keeps me going, absolutely.It’s taking years off me. I am feeling younger already.”

Not that Ferguson and his side have thrown in the towel with the final 90 minutes of the season still to go.

He admitted: “I would have taken this situation before a ball had been kicked this season, yes, definitely.

“There’s always excitement for important games like these – the expectation, the occasion. On the morning of the game, you start to think how you are going to manage that expectation in terms of the temperature in the dressing room, the calmness in the dressing room, the focus in the dressing room.

“What is really important is that the players focus on the game and not the occasion. It will be no different at Sunderland.

“We will do exactly as we have always done. There are one or two younger players who have not experienced this but it can only be good for them.”

If United do surrender their title to Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City, there will be time set aside for reflection before the task of wresting it back begins in earnest.

“If we don’t win it, we will analyse this season,” Ferguson said. “That doesn’t really matter at the moment.”

Ferguson revealed that he hadn’t had time to read the headlines coming from the City camp, warning of a sky blue domination over the coming years.

“I have not seen the papers. I have not really been in the mood, so I’m not really bothered about that,” he insisted.

“We’ve always known there were challenges ahead of us. We have done well over the years on that. This is exactly the same.”

The biggest crime today in Ferguson’s eyes would be for his side to mess up at the Stadium of Light. “My job is to make sure we win our game,” he added.

Although Ferguson aims to make two or three significant signings in the summer – Tottenham’s Luka Modric, Lille’s Eden Hazard and Borussia Dortmund’s Shinji Kagawa are among the targets – he believes the nucleus of his current squad will provide silverware.

“We have a good base,” he stated. “Every young player here needs to get that maturity, that authority into his game.

“You saw it with Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. I think we will see it with Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley.”

Ferguson will promote teenage striker Will Keane to the first team squad next season, and he believes Javier Hernandez will benefit from some weeks of rest during the summer.

Hernandez won’t be allowed to play for Mexico in the Olympics. Ferguson added: “If players don’t get a summer’s rest you definitely get problems. Look at Hernandez this season – he has had a nightmare. He has had three summers in a row playing for Mexico. We are taking him out of the Olympics because he needs a rest.”

Smalling will have an enforced break after missing out on the European Championships with England because of a groin problem.

Ferguson revealed that a fit-again Michael Owen could be on the bench against Sunderland.

He said: “If we need a goal in the last few minutes, there is no one better than Michael.”SUNDERLAND V MAN UTDSIR ALEX FERGUSON