EPL: Alex Ferguson shares secrets of signing world-class players for Man United

According to Ferguson, instinct and determination guided him in selecting the best among players for the Red Devils.

Ferguson was United manager for 27 years after spells at East Stirlingshire, St Mirren, Aberdeen and St Johnstone.

The Scottish said that part of his success is down to his eye for players who shared his mentality.

“I think that it could be divided into maybe a few parts. Some players I had were absolute natural footballers, with natural talent,” he told the United official website.

“But there were other players who shared my determination, who maybe weren’t the best players but they made themselves the best players because they had something inside them too.

“So I made sure that my players had a mental toughness about them, from that moment on.”

He added: “I believe in instinct. I had a good instinct about players and I had a good instinct about watching players who I maybe wanted to buy. Instinct was really important.

Also on instinct, sometimes it’s picking the team. We’re playing certain teams and I’d have an instinct: ‘right, I’m not going to play certain players. I’ll play other players.’ I wouldn’t say it’s intuition, I’d say it’s instinct.”

The top 20 players signed by Ferguson during his years at Old Trafford include Carlos Tevez, Javier Hernandez, Dimitar Berbatov, Jaap Stam, Patrice Evra, Dwight Yorke, Denis Irwin, Nani, Rio Ferdinand, Edwin Van Der Sar, Andy Cole Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Nemanja Vidic, Steve Bruce, Wayne Rooney, Peter Schmeichel, Roy Keane, Eric Cantona and, Cristiano Ronaldo, who became world best at the club.