Fergie avoids any own-goals about racehorses

Sir Alex Ferguson was in town yesterday, not to talk about his legal battle with Manchester United's biggest shareholder over a racehorse, but about football.

During a visit to UCD yesterday he declined to comment to the media about his dispute with John Magnier over the multi-million euro rights to the thoroughbred stallion, Rock Of Gibraltar.

Instead, he was in generous mood as he showered praise on Irish players Roy Keane and John O'Shea and even paid tribute to his arch-rival, Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger.

The Manchester United manager was visiting UCD to receive an honorary fellowship of the Literary and Historical Society at UCD, joining a list of luminaries which include Sir Bob Geldof and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, John Hume.

While he didn't mention Mr Wenger by name, he at least conceded that Arsenal's decision to purchase French international star Thierry Henri was a masterstroke.

"Arsenal have done well bringing in Henri. The decision to sign him was fantastic. He's a different player to what he was," he gushed.

Faced with an auditorium of adoring fans, there were no incendiary questions lobbed by members of the audience regarding his relationship with David Beckham or the racehorse dispute. Instead, after a rousing standing ovation from the packed lecture theatre, he delivered a eulogy on Roy Keane's talents and predicted he would eventually enter into football management.

" got the intelligence, first of all. And I'll tell you another thing about management, you have to be able to make a decision.

"Roy Keane can make a decision, that's one thing without a doubt in his favour. He's positive, decisive and intelligent. He influences Manchester United.

"If he can influence them on the playing field, he's an absolute certainty to be a manager."

Despite his sometimes gruff exterior, Sir Alex revealed what drives him and the club to securing a record number of titles for Manchester United.

"The fear of losing and failure is always there. It's not something I go to bed at night-time and say we better win tomorrow, it's not like that. But the fixation is always there and that keeps me alive," he said.

Before leaving, there was a dash of the old stubborn Scot as he took a swipe at notion of introducing technology to refereeing decisions.

"Can you imagine Old Trafford on a really wet winter's day? The referee stops the game, goes to the touchline, looks at a video. Technology at that level is out of the question."