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Fergie in tune with the winning rhythm

Alex Ferguson's current Man Utd team may well be his best
 Sir Alex Ferguson
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson watches his vibrant side demolish Fulham. Photograph: Joe Toth/Joe Toth / BPI

The fierce Glaswegian pensioner hunched in a blue overcoat is worried what might happen to him when he steps off "the train" that has carried him through so many magical places.

Walk along the banks of the Thames from Putney Bridge station to Craven Cottage and you will see many gents in their 60s who might be wondering what to do next. Men walking dogs, men pushing grandchildren in buggies, men with cans of ale: few of them able to say, as Sir Alex Ferguson can, that life is as thrilling at 67 as it has ever been.

The train metaphor arises from an interview Ferguson gave L'Equipe this week. "I have been on the train for so long that when I get off it, I'm scared my body will shut down," he told the French newspaper. It sounded like a Delta blues refrain and was unexpectedly plaintive for a fellow in such an impregnable position.

These are fears familiar to the potential retiree. The difference is that, when he said it to a French interviewer, Ferguson's Manchester United had won the Carling Cup and World Club Cup and were seven points clear in the Premier League, while preparing to meet Fulham in an FA Cup quarter‑final and with Internazionale due in Manchester on Wednesday night to settle a Champions League tie that stands 0-0 from the first leg in Milan.

It is probably the knowledge that United have assembled probably the strongest side of his 22-plus years in charge that is causing the demons to rise at night.

Ferguson has said he will not go on beyond 70, by which time the rear of Fulham's team might just have recovered from the beasting Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney gave them in the first half, when Andy Johnson, Bobby Zamora and Clint Dempsey all manufactured chances at the other end but lacked the lethal edge that relentless winning brings.

The Big Push goes on, scattering all in its path. This season is turning into one long pageant of United extending a hand towards a prize. A cold March day in rowing country brought a day off for Cristiano Ronaldo, who stayed in the north, and bench time for Dimitar Berbatov, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.

United have reached the nirvana where injuries, rotation and changes in the nature of the assignment bring no appreciable diminution of rhythm. Winning has become a mode of being, a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the team could hardly be more scarily potent as Inter and Liverpool (on Saturday) drape themselves across the altar of Old Trafford.

Except that losing to José Mourinho's human tanks in midweek would wipe the auto-grin off United's chops. Equally a victory for Liverpool next Saturday would alert Guus Hiddink's Chelsea to the possibility of a United collapse on the run-in and put Liverpool themselves back within phoning distance of the title.

For United's followers, these ogres still stalk the land, but then they board trains to London to see Park Ji-Sung, Anderson, John O'Shea and Darren Fletcher pick up the midfield torch and Tevez carve scars on Fulham with two goals before half-time. Five minutes after the interval Rooney exploited languid Fulham defending to curl in United's third before Park, on 81 minutes, added a fourth.

With his minders and his swinging scarf, Mohamed Fayed had strode through United's warm-up drill to the usual acclaim from the home crowd. The cult of the leader endures at Craven Cottage, where Roy Hodgson has displayed the power coaching still possesses to narrow the gaps between big and small Premier League clubs. Some days, that is, but not when United are this imperious.

Odd that the proprietor of Harrods, with an ex-SAS entourage, should be cast as underdog, but the whole of English football is in that kennel these days, so Fulham's owner was hardly lonely.

For United's smaller opponents there is always the consoling thought that losing to the reigning world, European and English champions is hardly a cause for mass resignations. As if to prove that adversity does actually feature in United's dictionary, Rio Ferdinand failed to reappear for the second half after sustaining what looked like an ankle injury. Even then, the replacement was Jonny Evans, that Northern Irish tower of rich defensive promise.

Cup action has plainly played on Ferguson's mind of late: specifically the Carling Cup end-game against Spurs. "I'm in the penalty shoot-out of my career but I'm scared about retirement," he told L'Equipe. But then we saw him skip across the pitch after half-time, a teenager's smile glowing on his face, as both teams waited for him to take his seat, like the driver of life's great train.

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