Alex Ferguson My Autobiography (38 page)

Rio Ferdinand was due to face a hearing for missing a drugs test when Roy Keane offered his support as they left the Old Trafford pitch.

A draconian sentence. Rio is banned for eight months. The club would not abandon him.

Roy Keane took parts of my own character on to the pitch. In his later years injuries made it harder for him to gallop from box to box.

Cristiano Ronaldo worked on every aspect of his game, even heading. Look at him leap in the 2004 FA Cup final win.

Reaching out to our fans. We’ve just beaten Millwall 3–0 in the 2004 FA Cup final and Mikaël Silvestre is with me.

Work hard, play hard. The dressing room after our victory over Millwall. Ronaldo looks so young.

Rivals to the end. Arsène Wenger and I had our fall-outs but there was more to unite than divide us.

Arsène was livid after we stopped Arsenal’s unbeaten 49-match run in October 2004.

Ruud van Nistelrooy opened the scoring as we prevented Arsenal from going 50 games unbeaten. A volcanic day.

Rafa Benítez turned our rivalry personal. I could handle that.

When José Mourinho joined Chelsea I thought: ‘New kid on the block. Confident.’ A new challenge had arrived.

My hero Denis Law and close friend Bobby Robson at a lunch to celebrate my 20th anniversary as United manager. As a player I wanted to be Denis.

Ronaldo was a model student. Carlos Queiroz played an important role in his development.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was a natural finisher. I always saw myself in our strikers.

Fergie Time. I pointed to my watch to strike fear into opponents, who knew we often scored in the last minute.