Football management is such a pressurised thing - horseracing is a release. I'm also learning to play the piano - I'm quite determined - it's another release from the pressure of my job.

It was not the first time that Ferguson had been linked with a move to England. Two weeks later he won his 100th game in the Champions League with a 1–0 win over Galatasaray at Old Trafford. Ferguson added Nottingham Forest's 22-year-old midfielder Roy Keane to the ranks for a British record fee of £3.

In 2008 he became the third British manager to win the European Cup on more than one occasion after Brian Clough and Bob Paisley. Ferguson previously managed East Stirlingshire and St. He was knighted in 1999 for his services to the game and also holds the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen.