"Teddy always trained hard and gave it his all, although I have to say he had a knack of knowing when to get injured - around November so he could get a sneaky week in the Bahamas. Playing with Teddy was enjoyable because he's got an exceptional football brain. He was always talking with you.
"We always discussed the position we were in as second-choice partnership behind Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole. We understood that and we always took every chance when we got it. He was vital to United's success because of his experience and the way he conducted himself. Teddy taught me about the mental approach of the game. It's unbelievable that he is still in the game, although no surprise either."
The Sunday Times:
With a £1m-plus bachelor pad, a Miss Great Britain girlfriend and a sideline playing professional poker, Sheringham still leads the laddish life, but it is easier to stay young at heart than fresh of body. In terms of miles on the clock, Sir Stanley Matthews may have kept going into his fifties, but Sheringham has actually played more professional games (860) than the old Stokie.
How to explain him? Sir Alex Ferguson often slips into racehorse-owner mode when assessing footballers and, citing the bloodstock dynamics of body composition and lineage, you would imagine he is describing a stallion, only you know that Sheringham can only canter, never gallop. "If you've seen Teddy stripped there's no fat, not even any semblance (of it), on his body," says Ferguson. "He's a naturally lean man. If you look at his father, he's exactly the same, a tall, angular man, bony and not a bit of fat even though he's well into his sixties."
Self-belief has obviously sustained him. Sheringham used a press conference to mark his impending birthday to complain that he should have been given more than 10 minutes by Alan Pardew against Manchester United on Wednesday. He is contracted until the end of next season and feels he can play on longer. "Teddy is the only player I know who could miss three one-on-ones and still try to chip the goalkeeper," wrote Tony Cascarino, his friend and former strike partner. "He had more self-belief than any player I'd ever known."
One thing everybody says about Sheringham is that he was never quick. You have to be strong to endure, but having a game based on cerebral rather than physical qualities is the cornerstone of football longevity. Amedeo Carboni, 41 on Thursday and still playing occasional first-team football for Valencia, believes he can carry on next season. "I do not think about the future. I have done many things and I have quite a lot to do," Carboni said last week. The left-back still summons impressive energy and aggression for a man of his age but his prime attributes are the cuteness and ruthlessness bred into all classic Italian defenders. The same is true of Alessandro Costacurta, 40 this month, who captained Milan in the Champions League in midweek.
As Sheringham proves, guile is also priceless at the other end of the pitch, which is why a canny poacher such as Hossam Hassan, 40 in August and a veteran of more than 170 internationals, could captain Egypt to victory in the African Cup of Nations recently. Romario is the granddaddy of them all. The stubby Brazilian World Cup winner was never sleek, and they say that it was another millennium when he last trained properly, but he understands the penalty box the way Einstein knew calculus and was still the top scorer and star player in the Brazilian championship last year. On Friday, Romario signed for Miami FC. He is 40 years and three months old.
The rise of the fortysomethings seems to challenge logic. Professor Tom Reilly, the president of the World Commission of Science and Sports, says: "The irony is that this is happening at a time when training schedules are more strenuous and games are faster than ever before. But there is also a better knowledge base in football clubs in terms of applying sports science to preparation and recovery and, across sport, the UK has gone from lagging behind to world practice leaders."
With the generation of Cesc Fabregas and Wayne Rooney taking over, football can seem like a young man's game, but that is the very reason the likes of Sheringham can prosper.
"Age prejudice has gone," says Reilly. "When I did my doctorate in the 1970s, working with English football clubs, the general belief was that 31 was over the hill for a player. What I think we'll see is the age spread in football teams continue to increase."
Mark Hughes, the Blackburn manager who played until he was 38, believes rule-tightening as regards what constitutes a legal tackle means that players, especially attackers, receive far less physical punishment than they used to, thus prolonging their careers. Reilly observes there is now a great financial incentive to look after your body and keep playing: there would be little spur for Sheringham to continue on £25 a week, but £25,000 a week (and the rest) is a different equation.
Reilly expects to see an increasing number of footballers continuing into their late thirties. It is a sobering thought to consider that if Arsenal's Theo Walcott goes on to replicate Sheringham, he will still be playing in 2030.
And Sheringham is at least doing something to help ease the pensions crisis. He was eligible to collect his PFA pension five years ago, but he clearly does not feel ready to start picking it up just yet.