Fergie - I'm United's Main Man

Sir Alex Ferguson believes his success in the contract wrangle with Wayne Rooney demonstrated the correct balance of power at Manchester United.

The United boss thinks that the England international received 'bad advice' when infamously indicating that he would not renew his contract at Old Trafford in October.

Rooney, who performed a dramatic U-turn and signed a long-term contract, has since admitted that mistakes were made and Ferguson has not held back in criticising the 'unbelievable' demands of agents in football.

But, having celebrated his 69th Birthday with a win at West Brom over the weekend, United's boss insists that the conclusion of the saga demonstrated that he remains the main man.

"The most important thing you have to have managing at our club, and I'm sure it is now embedded in the constitution of the club, is that the most important person at Manchester United is the manager." Ferguson told Irish broadcaster RTE.

"The minute a player becomes more powerful than the manager of Manchester United, our club is finished. It will never be the same.

"There is a way of dealing with things. You have to be strong and have the support of the board and I have always had that. The important thing is to have your control because that is vital.

"In the case of Wayne, there is no doubt that he took bad advice. We are having to deal with agents all the time nowadays and it's a hard job to deal with these people.

"They come in with an imagination that's beyond belief. I remember one agent wanted a striker to be paid for all of the goals that he scored. I told (former chairman) Martin Edwards to remind the agent that was the reason why we wanted to buy the player!

"Another wanted us to buy blocks of flats for him! This is what you're dealing with today - it's unbelievable."

Ferguson is also adamant that he has not set a date for his retirement, having cancelled his initial plans in 2002, when former England boss Sven Goran Eriksson was approached.

He said: "I'm 69 now, but you say to yourself, what happens when you retire? What do you do? I said to my wife some time ago that we could always travel, but at our age, you can't just jump on a plane.

"That's why I have no plans. There are no plans for me to retire. I hope my health stays as it is so I can carry on.

"I made a mistake some years ago because I thought my 60th birthday was a good time to retire.

"I changed my mind, but they (United) had already approached Sven Goran Eriksson to take the job. I said my family are going off their head and Maurice Watkins (club solicitor) just laughed and said, 'OK'."