“During the Respect campaign — and this is a fact — Mr Ferguson was charged by the FA for improper conduct after comments made about Martin Atkinson [the referee] and Keith Hackett [the general manager of Professional Game Match Officials Limited]. He was not punished. He is the only manager in the league that cannot be punished for these things. Then he was talking about the fixtures. Two years ago we were playing a lot of early kick-offs away on Saturdays when United were playing on Sundays. And we didn’t say anything.

“Now he is complaining that everybody is against United. But the second half of the season will see them playing at home against all the teams at the top of the table. It is a fantastic advantage.

“But at Christmas, United played on the 29th and the rest of the teams played on the 28th. We were away against Newcastle two days after playing Bolton. They were playing about 40 hours later, they were not complaining then.

“There are two options if we don’t want more problems with fixtures. One is the same as in Spain, the draw for the first part of the league is known, everyone knows which weekend. In the second half everyone plays the opposite, so you all know. Sky and Setanta have the right to choose their games and it will be the same for everyone. So Mr Ferguson will not be complaining about fixtures and a campaign against United.

“Or there is another option. That Mr Ferguson organises the fixtures in his office and sends it to us and everyone will know and cannot complain. That is simple.

“We know what happens every time we go to Old Trafford and the United staff. They are always going man-to-man with the referees, especially at half-time, when they walk close to the referees and they are talking and talking.

“All managers need to know is that only Mr Ferguson can talk about the fixtures, can talk about referees, and nothing happens. We need to know that I am talking about facts, not my impression. There are things that everyone can see. Are they under pressure? Maybe they were not thinking that we would be at the top of the table in January. But we are top of the table and they are nervous.

“I am not telling the authorities what to do. But I have been here for five years and know how things are going on. I will be watching United’s game with Chelsea. The result does not matter to us, if we win at Stoke that result does not matter. I was surprised United wanted to start the mind games too early, maybe it is because we are top of the table. But I only wanted to explain our position.

“You can see every week how they put [referees] under pressure. We have seen players sent off at Old Trafford and we do not see our opponents sent off. It is part of the game.

“We had a meeting in Manchester with managers and FA about the Respect campaign. And I was very clear, forget the campaign because Mr Ferguson was killing the referees, killing Mr Atkinson, killing Mr Hackett. But he is not punished. How can you talk about the Respect campaign and criticise the referee every week? You can analyse the facts and come to your own ideas.”