However, with United sounding out some of the world’s best coaches, believed to have included England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, as a replacement, Ferguson then performed a dramatic U-turn and negotiated a new deal to keep him at the club until the summer of 2005.

United finished the 2001/2002 campaign trophyless as Arsenal completed the Double.

However, Ferguson’s men look in determined mood this season, currently second in the table, in the final of the Worthington Cup and having all but qualified for the last eight of the Champions League.

And Ferguson revealed in The Times Magazine: “I have never said I would retire then [at the end of his current deal].

“If I’m fit and healthy at that time and the team are successful, I could stay on. Quite easily, I could stay on.”

Ferguson felt the decision to announce his planned retirement so early had an adverse effect on the United team and revealed how his family had helped convince him to stay on at Old Trafford.

He said: “The first six months of last season were agony. I wasn’t enjoying it at all.

“I knew I had made a mistake having pre-announced it. I put pressure on my players. Then [over] New Year it was my 16th birthday [at Old Trafford].

“We’d been out for dinner with the family ... I’d gone for a sleep on the couch. Cathy [his wife] came through, she says: ‘I’ve had a chat with the boys. They don’t think you should retire. [they] Think your off your head. Even if United have got a new manager, you should go elsewhere.’

“I needed someone to kick me. I wouldn’t have done it myself.”

Ferguson admitted in the extensive interview with The Times Magazine published today to sometimes losing his cool.

“Sometimes I lose my temper, sometimes I don’t. If someone argues with me, I have to win the argument,” he said.

“So I start heading towards them. That’s where the hairdryer [shouting so close players can feel his breath] comes in.

“I can’t lose an argument. The manager can never lose an argument.”