AT a club like Manchester United, it is easy to look back.

It happens quite frequently, through the grainy images of the Busby Babes, the 1968 European Cup triumph, the brilliance of Best, Law and Charlton.

Some United fans of a certain age like to hark back to the eras of Tommy Docherty and Ron Atkinson, not too many talk about Dave Sexton, mind, and then there are the true glory years under Sir Alex Ferguson.

At Old Trafford, there always seems something worth celebrating, something worth recalling with fondness.

The club are currently in a two-year run-in to the commemoration of the heroes who died so tragically in Munich.

Two months ago, it was Paul Scholes 500th game and last month saw the first anniversary of George Best's death an exactly 20 years since Ferguson came south from Aberdeen.

Sunday is the great Scot's 65th birthday.

Goodness knows, in an era where three Premiership managers - Iain Dowie, Alan Pardew and Les Reed - have already lost their jobs, staying in the same place for two years, let alone two decades plus, is a feat worthy of celebration.

But, in marching through the back-slapping hordes, what Ferguson has also managed to do is retain his focus on the future and what he believes to be the best interests of Manchester United.

There are some, even among those who have not defected to FC United, who feel Ferguson has not always acted this way.

Although the truth is slightly different, it is argued by a sizeable minority the unseemly arguments with John Magnier over the ownership of Rock of Gibraltar created the vacuum that allowed Malcolm Glazer's é790million takeover, the merits of which are still the subject of hot debate.

Principles

In decrying FC United and those who formed it, Ferguson is accused of abandoning his socialist principles on the altar of self-preservation.

In keeping with the man, such allegations are swiftly dismissed, those who make them consigned the dustbin.

For Ferguson, throughout his life, has always had a clear sense of right and wrong and whether you are with him or not.

And for Ferguson just now, top of the Barclays Premiership at the end of 2006, the wrong thing to do would be to wallow in past glories.

"If you were to sit and reflect on all the wonderful things you have done, you could quite easily never get out of your chair. You could just watch videos all your life," he recently pointed out.

Sitting in chairs and watching videos has never been the Ferguson way. What he wants, more than anything, is to win; quizzes, horses, football. Anything.

Pontificating about where such immense inner drive comes from is a pointless exercise. There are many he grew up on the same Clyde shipyards who do not share it, just as there are many ex-professionals who didn't quite reach the level they wanted to.

The fact is, it is there and has been probably since those very early days at Harmony Row Boys' Club. And largely, over the past 20-plus years, United have reaped the benefits.

Over the past few weeks, Ferguson has made it perfectly clear he has no thoughts of retirement and has nothing but scorn for those who have, at one time or another, tried to turf him out of his job.

In his own mind, the only one that counts, he still has plenty of work to do and has earned the right to step down at a time of his choosing.

Given United currently stand top of the Premiership, are in the last 16 of the Champions League and are playing some of the most attractive, and effective, football seen in this country for quite a while, it is hard to argue.

Eight titles, five FA Cups, two League Cups, a European Cup, a Cup Winners' Cup, an Inter-Continental Cup, a Super Cup and five Charity Shields. That is some haul.

And, in keeping with a renowned gambler such as Ferguson, the safest bet of all is that he has not finished yet.

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