At the age of 66, Sir Alex Ferguson has shown that you can teach an old dog new tricks by giving his first interview in French, but football’s renaissance man feels that something was lost in translation when it came to discussing his retirement plans.

Ferguson was quoted as telling a French radio station “maybe three years more, then I’ll finish”, suggesting that he would retire as Manchester United manager at the end of the 2010-11 campaign, by which time he will be seven months short of his 70th birthday. But the view held by those close to Ferguson, one that he reinforced yesterday, is that there is no date for his retirement and that he will leave Old Trafford “when the time is right” — ideally, having lifted the European Cup at least one more time.

“I’m not saying I will do three more years,” he said in advance of today’s FA Cup sixth-round tie at home to Portsmouth. “It’s a possibility, but it could be four years. It could be tomorrow. Nothing has changed in my mind. One thing that can change is your health and also the success of your team.”