Just for a moment yesterday, with a tenth Premier League title in 16 seasons within touching distance, Sir Alex Ferguson allowed himself to drift off down the road not taken. It was a road marked joie de vivre, a road that would have allowed him to travel the world while indulging his love of horse racing and fine wine, but, as he pondered what might have been, he snapped out of his reverie and thanked his wife, Lady Cathy, for “bullying” him into staying on as Manchester United manager.

As a rule, Ferguson does not talk about what might have transpired had his wife and three sons, so legend has it, not coerced him into a U-turn when retirement loomed in 2002. But yesterday he admitted to having thought about the possibility of spending his days pruning roses and filling some vague ambassadorial role at Old Trafford while another manager (Sven-Göran Eriksson? Fabio Capello? José Mourinho? Arsène Wenger, perish the thought?) took United to Wigan Athletic tomorrow for what may or may not have been a title decider.

“I do think about it sometimes,” Ferguson said, “and it doesn't sit easy with me. I don't know how I would feel watching today, sat in the directors' box. It would be difficult, I think. But the decision wasn't taken because of that. The decision was taken because my wife told me. It's the only time in my life I've been bullied.”

Nobody can say what kind of team United would have today had Ferguson stuck to his initial plan to retire six years ago, but few can take issue with the quality of the team to emerge in recent seasons. With the brilliance of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney allied to the experience of Edwin van der Sar, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs and the qualities of Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and others, they are a team who have scored 78 goals in 37 league matches and, if the title is decided by goal difference, it will be a triumph for United's attacking football over Chelsea's more attritional approach.

“That would be a victory for us,” Ferguson said. “We've got our beliefs about how we want to play the game, about how we think it should be played. That's not going to change. That's in the history of our club. Everyone has their own history and ours is indelibly printed in the things that have happened at this club.”

That cavalier attitude extends to a time-honoured penchant for doing things the hard way. In many respects United are a more human team, with some of the flaws that that entails, than the relentless, machine-like Chelsea. Ferguson suggested yesterday that none of his subsequent teams have matched the mental and physical strength of his 1993-94 title-winners - Peter Schmeichel, Steve Bruce, Roy Keane, Eric Cantona et al - but he said that this squad, which he considers the most technically gifted of his reign at Old Trafford, “has the makings of a very good team. I like them. But you're judged on what you win.”

Had United beaten West Ham United on the final day of the 1994-95 season, they would have recorded five consecutive Premier League titles between 1993 and 1997. That 1-1 draw at Upton Park, which handed the title to Blackburn Rovers, is one of those afternoons that lives with Ferguson to this day and he is adamant that tomorrow's experience away to Wigan will be different.

“I have no fears about this team,” he said. “No fears about fitness, no fears about form and no fears about confidence. We're going to Wigan with a genuine chance of winning the league, supported by some fantastic fans. Hopefully we don't let them down.”

It is difficult to imagine that they will. Come 5pm tomorrow United's players are likely to be found cavorting around the JJB Stadium with the Premier League trophy and ten days later, in Moscow, they will be hopeful of beating Chelsea in the Champions League final. So might it then, finally, be time for Ferguson, at 66, to follow the road not taken? “No chance,” one of his closest associates says. “Alex would rather die in the dugout. Seriously, no chance.”

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