IT'S ALL DOWN TO ME

Last updated : 11 May 2003 By Editor

Fartin in The Times

"And it will be this period just gone (the past 20 years) they will look back at. Eight championships, the European Cup, six FA Cups. It has been phenomenal. The credit will come. It might be in 20 years, it might not even be in my lifetime, but someone will eventually look back and say somebody was doing something right behind the scenes.

"At first you think ‘why am I not getting the credit for this?’ Then it doesn’t arrive and you think ‘don’t kid yourself, don’t upset yourself about it.’ I don’t get bitter. The satisfaction for me is that, after 23 years as chairman, I think the club is beginning to get the full benefit of everything that has been done. Manchester United is in a dominant position in English football, a very dominant position. Provided it manages itself sensibly, it can dominate for many, many more years. Even more so.

'Only Real Madrid have done better in Europe recently and they aren't living in the real world.

'They had one reprieve with selling their training ground, but I am not sure who will bail them out next time.

'The question for United is whether you chase them in the short term and I don't think you do. You have to be sensible.

'Leeds did exceptionally well for a short period of time and everybody loved it, but the day of reckoning is always going to come. There is no point popularising yourself at that cost.

And on Fergie’s successor: "One person you would have to put in the frame is O'Neill.

"He won two League Cups with Leicester City and you see what happened there after he left. Then he went on to Celtic and all the success he has had there.

"He broke Rangers' dominance and has now reached a Uefa Cup final, so he is doing it in Europe."