WHEN I'M 65

Last updated : 09 November 2003 By Editor

SAF: "We have had good discussions and we are not far away.

"It could be done in the next week.

"The length of the contract is one of the areas we are discussing.

"How long should I stay on? It is a difficult one. I would probably think until I am 65-years-old.

"That is a nice time to say `Do I want to go now?'

"I have made the point of saying that I am enjoying it and I have my health, and I think that is the way of looking at it."

This from The Sunday Times:

Sir Alex Ferguson expects to agree a new 3½-year contract this week that will keep him in charge of Manchester United until he is 65. The Premiership’s longest-serving manager, who celebrated 17 years at Old Trafford last week with victory over his old club, Rangers, is set to remain at United until at least the summer of 2007.

Ferguson, whose existing deal expires in summer 2005, will be rewarded with the most lucrative terms any British manager has enjoyed. His current pay is £11m over three years, plus incentives, and his basic salary is expected to rise to about £4m a year, taking the potential value of his new contract, with bonuses, to £15m. It is a far cry from the first deal he signed at Old Trafford in November 1986, when he had to take a pay cut to join United from Aberdeen