Mark Hughes, The Next Gaffer?

Mark Hughes has let it be known he would relish the opportunity to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United's manager. The one-time United centre-forward takes his Blackburn Rovers side to Old Trafford tomorrow amid speculation that he may be the man to step into the breach when Ferguson finally retires. Although at pains to stress how happy he is at Ewood Park, Hughes did little to discourage such a suggestion yesterday. Asked if taking over from Ferguson would appeal, he replied: "I want to go as far as my ability will allow me. If I do a good job here, which I think at the moment I'm doing, we'll have to see what happens in the future. A big job is something all managers aspire to." Asked whether the prospect of the United job might scare him, the 43-year-old former Wales manager said: "I've got to be careful what I say here . . . but I wouldn't be fazed by it, by any job. "I think you have to have confidence in your own ability, in your own philosophy of how the game should be played and how you approach getting the best out of a group of players. And you have to back yourself in that respect. I've seen it work in my previous job with Wales, I've seen it work here and I know that if I was at a different club it would work." Not that Hughes - who kept prefixing answers to questions about his future with "I've got to be careful here" - believes he would have an automatic right to the United job. "When Sir Alex makes his decision to leave there'll be lots of applications from all over the world," he said. But John Williams, Blackburn's chairman, has previously admitted that, when Ferguson steps down, he anticipates a strong mutual "attraction" between Hughes and United. It is understood that, should United offer adequate compensation, Williams would not stand in Hughes's way. For now the Welshman's concentration is on Blackburn, their FA Cup semi-final and their hopes of finishing sixth and qualifying for the Uefa Cup . "I'm very, very happy here," insisted Hughes, who only last May signed a new contract which will keep him at Ewood until 2009 - coincidentally the year when Ferguson has talked about possibly retiring. "There's a big challenge here and it excites me." Although his relationship with Ferguson as a United player was often awkward, the pair respect each other and Blackburn's manager is unstinting in his praise for the Scot. "I wouldn't say I'm in constant contact with Sir Alex but there are occasions when I pick up the phone and discuss things with him," he said. Hughes, who has every available coaching qualification, particularly admires Ferguson's appetite for innovation. "Since I left in 1995 United have certainly progressed and moved on in their thinking," he said. "That's the great strength of Sir Alex Ferguson: he's never stood still, never just banked on doing what got him results in the past. He's always looked to the future. The way the club is run and the players are prepared is certainly different from when I was there. "Sir Alex has always taken great pride in building and dismantling teams and another great strength of his has always been getting the right players for the right time, the right decade." Hughes - who would expect to face competition from Sunderland's Roy Keane - believes Ferguson still has unfinished managerial business. "For a club like United the Champions League is something they have to do well in. It's a prerequisite," he said. "Sir Alex would love to win another Champions League and I suspect he'll keep going until he no longer has the energy to challenge for it." Odds on the succession 6-1 Mark Hughes, Martin O'Neill 7-1 Roy Keane 8-1 Carlos Queiroz 16-1 Jose Mourinho, Marcello Lippi 20-1 Guus Hiddink, Sam Allardyce, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Sven-Goran Eriksson 25-1 David Moyes 33-1 Fabio Capello, Steve McClaren, Gordon Strachan 66-1 Bryan Robson, Paul Ince, Steve Bruce 100-1 Darren Ferguson · Courtesy of William Hill Reference: guardian.co.uk