At the Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria, Sir Alex Ferguson is on the pitch encircled by journalists, his talk as compelling and flab-free as ever. A football, gently lobbed, lands against a reporter’s backside.

Who would dare caper when Ferguson is in full flow? The writer turns round to see it’s the only person, perhaps on Earth, who could: Manchester United’s chief executive David Gill. Gill and Ferguson laugh a hello and share a joke about the chairman of a rival club. Then Ferguson, smiling, proceeds. Success sires serenity and it is more than the fact he is in South Africa, one of his favourite places, that is making Europe’s champion manager happy. On Thursday Ferguson spent the afternoon lost in pleasure at a Johannesburg art gallery. Today, Friday, he is enthused by another passion: he has a tip for the 2.10 at Ascot.

Here is a man not creased by cares. Pictures of Cristiano Ronaldo on the tiles in Hollywood? No problem. Under control. Ferguson, taking a leaf from his old mentor, Jock Stein, who they said monitored his Celtic players with more spies than the Stasi, sent a chaperone to Los Angeles. Like a human surveillance camera, he is relaying Ronaldo’s every move.

Ferguson is satisfied with Ronaldo’s behaviour and that the trip is not affecting his recovery from ankle surgery. Reports of vodka binges are “absolute rubbish”. He is not, believes Ferguson, turning into another David Beckham. United may have had to cool their interest in Dimitar Berbatov because of a breakdown in relations with Tottenham but Ferguson is sanguine, now turning attention to other transfer targets.

The goal he is setting his team is the small one of retaining the Premier League and European Cup this season; they are capable of it, he says. Longer term, his plans, contrary to reports, may yet include coaching a Great Britain football team at the 2012 Olympics, though he concedes this would be awkward should a boycott of the side by Scotland materialise.

You've never rested on laurels but after conquering England and Europe last season, what are the goals for 2008-09?

Well, it’s straightforward for me. I’m thinking always of what I can say to the players in that first team meeting of the season. This time it was “what do you want your-selves?” I think it was summed up perfectly by Ryan Giggs at the dinner after the Champions League final. He made a speech, ‘I’ve had to wait nine years to win this trophy again’. Nine years is a long time and hopefully that registers with the players. They’ ve got a chance to win it again this season. That’s my immediate thought.

Having won in Moscow with a youngish team, we could do it again. The league will always be important because of the tribalism in your country and we start off with Newcastle – you know what the Geordies are like, fantastic atmosphere – then go to Portsmouth, Liverpool and London. Chel-sea, they’ll be wanting to confound my comments about them being an old team (mischievous laugh).

But if this team can win another European Cup it puts them on a different platform to any other United team in history. AC Milan have won the trophy seven times, Liverpool five, Bayern Munich and Ajax four, and we should really be in that frame. Europe is our priority in the sense it’s the big challenge for us, to get on to the level at least of the Liverpools and Bayerns.

How will you manage Ronaldo when he returns?

The boy loves to play football. He loves training. He’s always last off the field and that won’t change. The injury? Right now he can’t do any fitness work because he’s got the crutches, you see. He’s out of plaster in eight days’ time. At that point he will return to us to start rehabilitation.

It’s okay that he’s in LA?

There’s no harm in him going there. He’s gone to do a commercial thing. I think he’s signed up with a new commercial company, an LA-based company.

There are photographs of him in nightclubs . . .

Listen, I’ve got someone with him there. It's a load of rubbish. He’s not drinking for a start. They (newspapers) had him drinking vodka and that. I said to myself: “Drinking vodka?” I phoned my friend who’s with him and he says: “Boss, there’s no truth in that.” Ronaldo doesn’t drink, we know he doesn’t drink. Stories about some of the other stuff he’s doing are rubbish too.

You sent a club employee with Ronaldo?

We (United) have got someone, aye.

You mentioned Ronaldo’s dedication yet he’s being portrayed as a glamour boy. Are you confident he hasn’t changed?

Any young player who’s had that type of success is going to get attention. The important thing is how they handle it. We know success changes people but the change you like to see is when there’s an elevation in the player’s own esteem which helps them become better. That’s the case with him. At 23 he is reaching the stage where his maturity, his personality and the presence he has on the world stage should help him.

Is there any similarity with Beckham in that he’s no longer being seen as just a footballer?

No. I don’t want to go into it (the differences between Ronaldo and Beckham) but it’s obvious.

How does losing Carlos Queiroz as your number two disrupt plans?

We’re not in a hurry to find a replacement, though we’re looking. When you lose a good man you take your time before filling the position. But with our experience, hopefully it’s not too big a loss. Carlos did some great work but Mike Phelan has been with me 10 years, Les Kershaw, Jim Ryan nearly 20 years. And there’s Rene Meulensteen. They’re all good coaches.

Nonetheless, it puts an extra burden on you – and you’re 67 inDecember.

Naw. Naw. I was going to maybe take a week off now and then, but that’s that bolloxed. But, really, the only time I’ll have to do a lot extra is if we pick a new assistant, because you have to bed them in.

You’ll miss Queiroz’s language skills?

Without question. We’re going to have to work hard with our language teachers, with the players who are still adjusting to the English language, such as Nani, Carlos Tevez and Anderson.

So the new No 2 won’t necessarily be British?

He could easily come from abroad because that would give me an advantage in terms of language, but I’m open-minded.

Would you manage a GB team at the 2012 Olympics?

Seb Coe did have a meeting with me. I said: “2012, that’s a long way off and I don’t know my retirement plans.” But I told him I would give it consideration, because I may have retired by then and want to accept those kinds of challenges that come up on a short-term basis.

If Scotland boycotted the team?

Well, obviously that would make things difficult.

You made Ole Gunnar Solskjaer reserve team manager, a rapid pro-motion for a coach in his first year. Could he be a top manager?

He’s taking his badges and he’s got a lot of qualities, a good manner with the players and a different way of getting things out of them, because he has a quiet-spoken nature. He’s improved his voice levels, which is important in coaching, but I don’t know his ambitions. Coaching’s always the best thing. Anyone who wants to take the next step into that unknown valley of snakes and rats and all the rest of it . . .

You’re surely not talking about the press?

Exactly! That’s where the valley is.

United closing in on Tevez deal

Manchester United are ready to spend £20m to secure Carlos Tevez. The Argentinian, who has been at Old Trafford on a complicated loan deal since last August, is to be signed on a permanent basis once the transfer window closes. Tevez will become the fourth most expensive signing in United’s history, after Rio Ferdinand, Juan Veron and Wayne Rooney.

Tevez’s status is not straightforward, since he is being leased by United not from another football club but from two investment companies, Just Sports Inc and Media Sports Investments. United were granted special dispensation to acquire him in such a fashion by the Premier League, who say Tevez will be the last player subject to third-party ownership permitted to be registered with one of its clubs.

West Ham are still facing legal action from Sheffield United over their acquisition of Tevez, left, and Javier Mascherano in 2006-07 and the Premier League will be delighted once Tevez becomes contracted to a club straightforwardly. This is about to happen, with United poised to activate a clause that allows them first refusal to buy Tevez at a prearranged price, thought to be £20m, at any time before May 2009.

‘We acquired [Tevez] on a two-year loan deal, we’ve just paid the second instalment of that and we know what we have to pay to acquire him permanently,’ said United chief executive David Gill.

‘We’re concentrating on doing whatever other business we need to do and then we’ll do Carlos. But there’s every intention at the club to make that a permanent deal and give him a long-term contract and that will be addressed after this window is out of the way.’