“These two players are above everyone" - Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson in an interview says he believes Louis van Gaal has the right pedigree for Manchester United - and his press conferences are "brilliant".

And he goes on to describe Argentinian Lionel Messi and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo as "above everyone" in terms of quality on the football pitch.

Referring to Van Gaal, the former Manchester United boss says: "Every manager's different anyway; we all have different philosophies, beliefs, ways of doing things the way we pick teams, how we look at the qualities of players we are looking for, we enjoy.

"Louis' got a great background; Bayern Munich, Barcelona - he's got the pedigree, no doubt about that."

He continued: "And I love his press conferences, I mean they are brilliant. I can see some of the press guys twitch in their seats when he answers some of the questions. And he's got the confidence to deal with that."

Describing the "consistency" and "courage" of Messi and Ronaldo he goes on: "They are never ever defeated by a tackle.

"They get up, they say 'give me the ball'. The goals they score, the level they are playing at, the medals they won - it only points to one thing.

"These two players, and I think most players in the world would agree with me, these two players are above everyone."

Sir Alex also praised David Beckham for his work ethic and went on to describe what he felt most proud of in his career.

"Five times we were runners-up in the Premier League since it started," he said.

"The next year we won it. That tells you about recovery, not allowing defeat to kill you, and doing something about it - and I think that's what I'm proud of."