Carlos has credentials to silence snipers

Champions' League: Fergie's No 2 admits to communication problems and plays down predictions of a takeover

Carlos Queiroz arrived at Manchester United this summer with the resounding endorsement of Sir Alex Ferguson and an impressive CV. When United were defeated in a Champions' League qualifying game and then lost two Premiership matches back to back, he soon learned that scapegoat was not a tasty dish of his newly adopted land.

On his appointment, Ferguson had described him as "someone who will come in and challenge the players", and in the early weeks the word emanating from United's Carrington training ground was that their ears had not been particularly receptive.

It was the former Tottenham chairman Alan Sugar who coined the name "Carlos Kickaball" as a generic term for all foreign overpriced football imports. He was specifically referring to players, but his dismissive reaction could also have applied to foreign coaches. Despite the achievements of Messrs Wenger, Houllier and Eriksson (and judgement is still pending on the latter in his England role), there remains a residue of mistrust in this country about that particular breed.

The brief appearance at Villa Park of Dr Josef Venglos, learned and tactically astute but apparently unable to adjust to the demands of English football, confirmed preconceptions. The man who many believe was hired not just as assistant to Ferguson but as his possible successor had been swiftly renamed Carlos Query. With a very definite question mark after it.

"That's fine," he says of the initial sniping in his direction. "We are professional and we accept criticism. We learn to accept all opinions. I have an open mind to criticism. Some of it is positive and it helps me. But the wrong things, you just put it in the garbage."

Responding to observations about United's tardy Premiership start and its effect on the championship, he adds: "It is too early to say. The worst point about those two games we lost [Bolton and Leeds] was that it was at the beginning. It was our duty as coaches to manage the psychological approach of the team and help the players to believe that they were only results. Despite that I thought we played fantastic football. We just didn't get the results that were fair. But nobody ever said that football was a fair game.

"We all accepted that, we worked hard, and then we got three results on the run. We have trust in our players, and a good example is Ruud [van Nistelrooy]. If we keep the mental side of the players positive, those goals will come in the Premiership as well as Europe, and the goals will begin to reflect our quality."

It is Friday, after training, and the Mozambique-born coach is deputising for Ferguson, whose absence, on an undisclosed mission, may just have had something to do with a race meeting at Ascot. Queiroz arrives in casual chic, adopting a fashion sense that few of his British counterparts could achieve. He is clad in a light shark-toothed jacket, light blue, open-necked shirt and dark chinos with a wide leather belt. He reminds you of one of those continental singers who has British women swooning. A charming Julio Iglesias type. One suspects that he complements rather than mirrors the numero uno.

Yet there is no question that his credentials withstand scrutiny, in particular his ability to develop young players. An undistinguished footballer himself, he moved into coaching and inspired Portugal's youth team to world championships in 1989 and 1991, nurturing such names as Luis Figo, Rui Costa and Joao Pinto, before taking over the Portuguese national side for three years in 1991.

That was followed by a world coaching tour, during which time he worked in the USA, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, before he accepted the post of South Africa's national coach. His team reached the 2002 World Cup, but poor performances in the African Nations' Cup eventually resulted in his resignation.

It was then that Ferguson made his move. "He is someone I have been looking at for quite a while," said the United manager. Queiroz reciprocates that feeling. "I feel very proud to be here," he says. "I am part of the best and biggest football family in the world. I am surrounded by so many great professionals and quality people."

He is asked what he regards as his greatest problem. "To win all your matches," he says, breaking into a smile. "I've been working outside my home country for some years, and the main problem is not to be able to talk to players in your mother tongue. Technical issues are not a problem, it is when you have to talk about emotional issues and express exactly what you feel inside. That is not easy. But the support I have got since I arrived here has been so good that it makes everything easy for me.When you come to a place like this, you have to feel grateful and not believe that anything is too difficult to overcome."

The arrival of the 49-year-old was, no doubt, something of a culture shock for some players, and many of United's followers, who have seen Archie Knox, Brian Kidd, Steve McClaren and Jim Ryan occupy that berth. Whatever else Queiroz injects into the United coaching set-up, he can analyse the squad from a fresh perspective. It is significant that Ferguson has already attributed the deployment of Paul Scholes from midfield to that of a withdrawn striker to his new assistant.

You imagine his manner with the players is akin to Kidd's, the nice cop to Ferguson's abrasive character. Not Carlos the Jackal. "I am human and if I lost my emotional side I wouldn't be a human being," he says. "You could not have a good relationship with those around you." Queiroz was asked if he swore at players in English or Portuguese. "No, I don't have to do that, although the first words are in Portuguese."

The fact that his contract expires at the same time as Ferguson's has convinced some to believe that he is manager-in-waiting. For the moment, he is content to study and assist the master. "For the last 17 years I have had full responsibility, and it has been different," he says. "But I commit myself to this, because when you have the possibility to work with a man like Sir Alex, and the possibility of working with Manchester United, it was an opportunity to learn, and that was my main reason for coming here. When you work with this team you don't feel like a secondary person. For all of us it is all about just working hard, performing well and thinking about Manchester United. I don't think about myself."

Queiroz arrives here a confirmed admirer of the Premiership and English football in general. And Arsenal? "We will have a great opportunity to compare ourselves when we meet them. On those days we will have the opportunity to see where they are and where we are. Outside the two games, it's just words."

For the moment, Olympiakos in Tuesday's Champions' League game concentrates his mind more. Three points will virtually assure United of qualification to the second stage. And for the most high-profile first-team coach in the land, one big point made.