Ferguson enjoys latest problems at 'noisy neighbours'

But United manager halts mind games to pay tribute to camaraderie of class of '94

Sir Alex Ferguson's face opened into a wide grin when told that Roberto Mancini is the 14th Manchester City manager he has faced since arriving across town at Old Trafford in 1986. "Is that all?" he said. "I can't wait for the 20th."

The "noisy neighbours" are in a mess again and Ferguson, predictably enough, agreed with the suggestion that the lack of class he depicted before the season started and City were parading their Carlos Tevez poster across Manchester had been borne out by the events of the past week. "It's a difficult job being in a city with Manchester United and the success they've had over the years and therefore there is always a moment where they think they can upstage us or something," Ferguson said. "I think them getting Carlos Tevez was one of those moments. They felt they'd upstaged us or had stolen one of our players from us." Schadenfreude does not begin to describe it.

But Ferguson's pleasure at City's implosion has its limits, even though the feisty competitor who has disappeared from the managerial scene was the one perhaps best equipped to neutralize his acidic verbal jousting and provide some ammunition of his own when the mind games came into play. After Ferguson had picked up the telephone to call Hughes last Sunday morning, his former player remarked that he had been particularly lifted by the vocal support offered him by the Sunderland manager Steve Bruce – hardly one of Hughes' closest friends – following the match which preceded the sacking. It was testament, Ferguson observed, to qualities which are still there, even in an era when foreign owners can rip another dispensable manager like Hughes out of his job.

"To me it was a great testimony to that great team in 1994," Ferguson said. "There was a fantastic spirit in that team. It was a powerful team mentally and physically you had [Bryan] Robson, Bruce, [Gary] Pallister, Hughes and [Eric] Cantona. Phew. They could look after themselves. If teams wanted to fight them they could fight them and if they wanted to play football they could play football. They stood by each other.

"I remember them going to Chester races where some fans from other clubs were up to all sorts of tricks with them, abusing them and stuff like that and they all went in mob-handed and sorted them out. When I got told I was raging. I was raging to them but inwardly I was so proud of them. Inwardly I said well done – that's exactly what I'd have done."

Hughes was the "quiet one". He and Bruce were not close even in United's 1993/4 Double-winning pomp. But that makes Bruce's observations – "You haul your family here, there and everywhere and get treated like that," he raged, in an eloquent and impassioned post-match press conference – all the more potent. "Hughes was one of his team-mates," Ferguson reflected. "He knew that in a fight Sparky would be the first in there, I mean he was a tough uncompromising centre-forward. Nobody liked playing against Mark Hughes. That was the type of person he was. He was an honest battler all the time."

Ferguson is astonished to have seen Brian Kidd installed as Roberto Mancini's assistant. "It's amazing isn't it?" he said. "I don't know where that's come from to be honest with you."

His first encounter with Mancini, who has predicted City can overhaul United inside 18 months will come soon, is in the Carling Cup semi final's two legs next month. Could the Italian, with no Premier League experience, challenge United in the competition that counts? "Well, that's the gamble isn't it," he said. "Only time will tell really. It's not an easy league."