"I'm keen to give Ricardo his debut, he's been very impressive," said Ferguson. "He had a great reserve-team debut last week and he's been terrific in training. It's good to have three goalkeepers of the quality that we have. I can't wait to give him his debut."
Coton was no doubt trying to gee up each of his charges but Ferguson tries to redress the balance in favour of Barthez.
"I think that competition is important," he added. "Fabien has had one or two problems with injuries but when he is fit he is the best goalkeeper in the world and there is no question about that. Then Ricardo comes along and we have Roy Carroll there - it does give us great competition there. If there is an injury situation with Fabien or the form is not 100% then we know what we can do then."