Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United Manager, Tells BBC He'll Be Club Ambassador After Retirement

Och! More Fergie Time?

Sir Alex Ferguson wants to stay on at Manchester United in an ambassadorial role when he retires as club manager.

But the 70-year-old wants another "two or three years" in the Old Trafford hot seat, he has revealed.

United have won 12 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups and two European Cups under Ferguson's 25-year stewardship.

Despite his keenness, Ferguson's wish to continue at the club in a different capacity is likely to draw ambivalence amongst supporters who remember Sir Matt Busby's move up stairs to the boardroom in 1969.

The club sacked three managers in the 1970's and yielded just one trophy in the decade after the hegemony of the 1968 European Cup triumph, which came just ten years after the Munich air disaster.

The Scot originally scheduled his retirement for the end of the 2001/02 season, but a disastrous start to the campaign - in which the Reds lost six games in the league alone before Christmas - and advice from his family prompted a change of heart.

Ferguson's latest challenge comes in the guise of rivals Manchester City, who he memorably referred to as "noisy neighbours" in 2009.

"I think you always want to go out on a winning note," Ferguson told the BBC.

"Hopefully we can do that. I don't know how long I can last now but if my health stays up I don't think another two or three years would harm me."

Speculation about who will succeed Ferguson remains a hot topic, and the Govanite last week touted Ryan Giggs for the role. But in his interview with DJ Spoony, to be broadcast at 7pm this evening, he reaffirmed his admiration for Real Madrid manager José Mourinho and insisted that the Portuguese would get more 'freedom' in England than he gets in Spain.

Mourinho won five trophies in three seasons at Chelsea, ending the club's 50-year wait for a league trophy in the process. And he has regularly expressed his desire to return to management in the Premier League.

Two of Ferguson's instrumental players during the 2008 European Cup-winning campaign were reunited in Madrid at the weekend:

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