Alex tells Mourinho he has no intention of handing over yet
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Forget it Jose, I'm staying at Manchester United: Sir Alex Ferguson tells Mourinho he has no intention of handing over... yet
Flying in? Jose Mourinho still wants the United job more than any other.
Sir Alex Ferguson is determined to remain Manchester United manager for at least one more season, disappointing Jose Mourinho, who hopes to succeed him at Old Trafford.
The United boss emphasised his continuing enthusiasm for the job with his touchline celebrations yesterday after Paul Scholes’ 93rd-minute winner against Manchester City pulled his team right back into the title race.
With Chelsea stumbling to a 2-1 defeat five hours later at Tottenham — where captain John Terry was sent off — United’s 1-0 victory lifted them just one point behind with three games to play.
There have been reports that Sir Alex was considering ending his career at United, following the club’s exit from the Champions League.
Victory dance: Sir Alex shows his vim and vigour at Eastlands
But the 68-year-old Scot intends to be in charge at least to see out the new one-year contracts handed to Scholes and his fellow veteran Ryan Giggs last week.
Former United skipper Steve Bruce, now in charge at Sunderland, poured scorn on any suggestion that his old manager would retire imminently. ‘It’s a load of rubbish. He’ll be around for a long time yet,’ he said last night.
Ferguson feared his team’s challenge for the Premier League would have ended if they had not secured a victory yesterday.
Asked if the title race was over without the Scholes goal, he said: ‘It looked that way. It would have made it very difficult. There’s no doubt that we deserved to win the game,
but I couldn’t see a goal coming.‘I think Paul was man of the match. He was absolutely fantastic. Such a skilful player. ‘It was an amazing finish. We have had three last-minute goals against City now this season, but deserve it.
‘We had the best chances but it did not look like anyone was going to win. The game became very open in the last 10 minutes.’
Man of the match: Paul Scholes seals the points
Ferguson’s decision to stay at United is bad news for Mourinho, who would dearly love to be the one to follow the Scot — and sooner rather than later.
Any move by Mourinho from Inter Milan would spark a managerial merry-go-round this summer which could see changes at top-flight clubs in England, Italy and Spain.
The Portuguese boss heads Real Madrid’s wish list to succeed Manuel Pellegrini, who will be fired at the end of the season.
If he does decides to stay at Inter and wait until the United job becomes available, the
Spaniards will make an effort to lure England manager Fabio Capello.Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez does not even appear to be on Real’s radar but coveting the coaching role at the Bernabeu might well have cost him any chance he had of taking over at Juventus.The word from Turin is the Italians have tired of waiting for an answer from Benitez and have now targeted City’s Roberto Mancini.
Mourinho has always insisted he will honour his Inter contract, which has another two
seasons to run. But he has also made no secret of his ambition to return to Premier League management. Having turned down City, he still wants the United job more than any other.The big question is whether he would be prepared to wait and take his chances of
inheriting Ferguson’s chair at Old Trafford.