Ferguson Makes Three Signings and Promises More to Come

Sir Alex Ferguson's body language and general demeanor yesterday was of a man completely in control of his own destiny, unlike his Chelsea counterpart Avram Grant, whose impromptu game of "yes/no" with the press on Thursday suggested he was starting to feel the strain. "I'm not going to lose my temper at this stage of the season," the Manchester United manager remarked before a weekend in which his team hope to take another significant step towards moving within one of Liverpool's haul of 18 league titles.

A jovial Ferguson had more good news to report, revealing that Michael Carrick had joined Wes Brown and Rio Ferdinand in agreeing a new contract. It has been an expensive week for the Premier League leaders but a fruitful one, too, and Ferguson could be forgiven if he considered Grant's monosyllabic performance at Everton on Thursday as a clear sign that the pressure is getting to Chelsea's manager.

One intriguing change in Ferguson's personality over the last couple of seasons has been his reluctance to indulge in anything that could be perceived as mind games and, yet again, he bluntly refused to talk about Grant's stewardship at Stamford Bridge.

It was enough for Ferguson to portray his own team as being on a perfectly even keel going into the final exchanges of a season that has been notable for the club's spirit of togetherness, certainly compared with the occasionally poisonous events at Chelsea and Liverpool. This is "squeaky bum time", to borrow one of Ferguson's well-worn phrases, and the most experienced manager in the business appears to be coping an awful lot better than Grant.

"I am not saying it gets easier over the years but I am accustomed to this stage of the season and exactly what it is like," said Ferguson. "That just comes from experience. There have been a lot of dramas over the years at this stage of the season and there could be a lot of drama this time, too. That is when I call on my experience and the fact I have knocked on that door 100 times, as have some of my players.

"On some occasions we have had great ends to the season. Other times we have not and have ended up with a bitter taste in our mouth. We went to West Ham on the final day of the 1995 season [when Blackburn Rovers won the league]. We should have scored six but we didn't and we lost the league. Sometimes these things happen but at this stage of the season it is all about how you cope with it and showing your experience. The important thing is that we are relaxed. The players are relaxed and so am I."

United will go five points clear of Chelsea at the top of the table if they win at Ewood Park in the late kick-off today and, though Ferguson has been at pains not to say anything overly presumptuous, he would be entitled, with only three games to go after that, to believe United are closing in on their 17th league championship, and the 10th in the past 15 years.

The flurry of new contracts at Old Trafford, with the defender Patrice Evra next in line for a hefty pay rise, also encourages Ferguson to believe that there are further good times ahead. "We have a good policy of renewing contracts at the right time," he said. "It gives us continuity and a chance of keeping the squad together. It is not easy to do but we do our best at it. We have a strong squad now and adding a couple more players in the summer is a possibility."