Ferguson: 'Cup is a bonus – let's concentrate on big League'

(HAMISH BROWN)

It may be telling that when Sir Alex Ferguson sat down and talked about Manchester United's Carling Cup campaign on Friday, he occasionally referred to his team in the third person.

"It's a bonus really, we didn't plan to be in the final," he suggested with a slight smile. "[The attitude was] hopefully we'll have a run, get to the quarter-finals, semi-finals maybe, and we'll see what [the younger players] are made of. They got home draws, which always helps – it's vital in the cup. So, as I say, it's a bonus."

Ferguson was simply putting the competition in context, rather than deliberately running it down, but the impression that even today's Wembley final was a sideshow compared to the main business of the season was unavoidable. And of course it is, even though it might be the first leg of an unprecedented – for an English club – quadruple. Or even, if you include the World Club Championship, the second leg of a quintuple.

Invited to at least consider the prospect of emulating the great Jock Stein's Celtic team of 1967, Ferguson – ingenuously or otherwise – chose to dismiss it.

"First of all I don't think it will be done. I mean, you can lose a cup game quite easily, any which way – we have Fulham away in the FA Cup, and that's a difficult task, they're playing very well at home.

"So I have to look at the more sensible options, and that is the Premier League, where we have a seven-point lead and are 10 goals better off than our next opponent, and a home tie with Inter Milan in the Champions' League, when all we need to do is win to get through to the last eight.

"But cup football is always fraught with the unpredictable. Take [the FA Cup tie with] Portsmouth last year – how did we lose that game? With the chances we had in the game, we should have buried them."

In fact, Ferguson insisted he would be happy winning just one competition this season, and there are no prizes for guessing which. His belief that United should be "up there with the Bayern Munichs and the Ajaxes and the Liverpools" when it comes to the number of European Cups won, grows stronger with every passing year, although it was notable that it did not prevent him comparing the squad who won a treble 10 years ago with his current players.

Ferguson said: "1999 was incredible, but we had a bit of luck with injuries and you need to have that. At the moment we're not having that luck, but what we have is a fantastic, adaptable squad; every time I bring someone in they respond to the challenge, and want to do well. I've changed my back four so many times, there have been any number of permutations, but they're all doing the business."

That much was again evident against Inter at the San Siro last Tuesday, a performance Ferguson categorised as evidence of his players' growing maturity. "I think as a squad the great thing is I could have picked two teams that night. Two or three teams who would have played in the same vein, expressing themselves," he said, a statement which added weight to his unhesitating reply when asked if he was confident a Wembley final would not be too much for the likes of the relatively inexperienced Darron Gibson and Danny Welbeck, both of whom he confirmed would start today.

"I'm absolutely 100 per cent confident in the young boys; if there were any doubts, they wouldn't be playing," he said. "They deserve it, their contribution in the League Cup has been terrific, and [anyway] we're not depending just on them to win the Cup for us, they'll be backed up by several senior, experienced players."

A trophy is a trophy after all, and a final is still, as Ferguson acknowledged, an occasion.

"You like to put on your best suit for an occasion, and you like to come away with good memories, and hopefully we will do that on Sunday." Which would make it trophy No 30, not including Charity Shields, one anorak pointed out.

Ferguson grinned: "Is that all?"