Sir Alex Looks Forward

You can’t make history without looking to the future, and Sir Alex Ferguson typically preferred to focus forwards rather than backwards after securing United’s 19th league title.

The boss tied up the 12th success of his Old Trafford reign with a gritty point at Blackburn Rovers, but quickly outlined his plan to garner more silverware next season.

“There's a responsibility as the manager of Manchester United,” he told MUTV. “It doesn't go away. I'm not changing anything. I'm not going to take it easy because we won the title today. Hopefully we'll be better next season.

“Hopefully we'll be adding two or three players in the summer. We've got some young players coming back like Welbeck, Cleverley and Diouf and we want to be better. I think the ambition of the club doesn't alter.”

Sir Alex has dragged United out of Liverpool’s shadow over almost 25 years in terms of honours won and, having now overtaken their longstanding record of 18 titles, is ready for the next challenge – wherever it comes from.

“It was Liverpool’s time in the ‘80s, it's our time now and we always expect them to challenge us and we also expect Manchester City to challenge us,” he said. “The great thing about us is that we accept challenges. It doesn't matter where it comes from.

“One league title opened the door for us because we won the Double the next year with a great team and since then we've carried along in the sense that we've always been challenging for the title. It's an amazing feat.

“For 19 years we've been competing for the league. It's an incredible achievement and every young player that comes to the club gets engrained into the fabric of that. Chris Smalling's got his first medal, so have Darron Gibson and Chicharito. It's a wonderful experience for them because they are the future.”

Sir Alex did, however, pause to salute the significance of a watershed moment in United's history: the day Wayne Rooney's penalty at Blackburn nudged the Reds towards title number 19.

"It's fantastic by the lads and the supporters," he said. "Everyone who's involved with the club has had a great day today in terms of achievement. We got the result we needed. It wasn't an easy game, going one-nil down after giving away a bad goal, but we kept on and that's the one great quality we've got - we don't give in."