When Sir Alex met the young pretender to his throne, Villas-Boas, in the gents

The prospect of a first competitive encounter with Andre Villas-Boas, after meeting in a toilet at a coaching conference last week, had Sir Alex Ferguson reflecting on his time as a  33-year-old manager.

‘I was actually 32 when I started at East Stirlingshire,’ he said with a smile. ‘I was part-time with players earning about £5 a week, running two pubs in Glasgow as well.’

The pubs had darts and dominoes teams and he ran those as well as the side at Firs Park. Once, that is, he had enough players to field a team.

Success: Andre Villas-Boas shares similarities with Sir Alex Ferguson

When Ferguson took charge, the squad comprised eight players and no goalkeeper, prompting him to inform his chairman, Willie Muirhead, ‘you need 11 players to start a game, plus two subs.’ He was given £2,000 to find a solution.

In his autobiography, Ferguson also recalls Muirhead suddenly appearing alongside him during a game that wasn’t going to plan.

‘What are you going to do?’ asked Muirhead. ‘I’m going to throw you out of this f****** dug-out if you don’t move NOW!’ he replied.

Life is a little different for Villas-Boas, even if Chelsea’s boss probably has to occasionally endure much the same kind of interference.

But Ferguson can still draw comparisons with himself at that age and the young man he goes head-to-head with at Old Trafford tomorrow. It is a game that should provide an indication of whether a third runner should be added to the perceived two-horse race; whether Chelsea can challenge Manchester United and Manchester City in the title race.

Taste of success: Villas-Boas led Porto to Europa League glory in his first year

Like Villas-Boas, Ferguson was not short of confidence as a young man. ‘The one common denominator is that you want to be successful,’ he said yesterday. ‘I set about in determined fashion that I wasn’t going to fail. I’d chosen that life. I’d been an engineer and I made up my mind that I wasn’t going back to engineering.

‘I did all my coaching badges when I was young — 23 years of age — so I’d prepared to be a manager. It’s important if you want to be in the game that you prepare to do that.

‘Andre Villas-Boas took his UEFA badges at Largs, in Scotland. When I went there it was full of fantastic coaches. They give you a good grounding there. But what about dealing with players who are the same age as their manager, perhaps even older?

‘When I went to Aberdeen, I was maybe 36, Bobby Clark, the goalkeeper, was maybe 33,’ he recalled. ‘But I didn’t have too many older players to deal with. At St Mirren, though, I had Ian Ure. He was two years older than me. But I got him the job at East Stirling to replace me and that was that.

Starting early: Andre Villas-Boas formed part of Jose Mourinho's staff in his 20s

‘I never had a problem dealing with people my age or about my age. It didn’t bother me. You can get carried away with these things. I never thought about my players having a problem with me either.

‘My advice to any young manager is that you should never seek a confrontation because it’s always around the corner. You don’t go searching for it.’

Ferguson takes pleasure in seeing that ‘clubs are not ignoring the  values of experienced managers’, mentioning Harry Redknapp and Roy Hodgson.

But Ferguson is not dismissive of the man he meets again tomorrow. On the contrary, it seems Villas-Boas has already made quite an impression. Both in the way  Chelsea have performed so far this season and the way the young pretender conducted himself at that UEFA coaching conference.

Hunger: Sir Alex is still as animated on the touchline as he was 20 years ago

They ended up having a chat in the loo, says Villas-Boas, and agreed that the off-side rule should be revised to combat those long throw-ins that are a favourite at Stoke.

‘He was coming out of the loo and I was just there,’ said Villas-Boas. ‘We said hello. We spoke about Stoke. Funnily enough, Stoke were one of the main discussion points of the elite clubs’ meeting.

‘We were talking about introducing off-sides for throw-ins. And there was another question about Stoke. I won’t share it. I’ve already been to Stoke. I want the other guys to go through that.’

Asked whether he felt like Ferguson’s equal, the Portuguese was emphatic. ‘No,’ he added. ‘As a manager, his CV speaks for itself. You just have to praise someone who wins that much in the game. I lost count of the amount of titles he’s won. Bearing in mind most of those titles are as difficult as Barclays Premier Leagues, Champions Leagues, FA Cups, it’s out of this world.

‘Ferguson, Mourinho and Guardiola, it’s incredible the amount of passion and how driven they are to be successful. It’s pretty good to be able to live with these examples at this moment.’

Ferguson appears to like Villas-Boas in much the same way he grew fond of Jose Mourinho. ‘I think he has started very well,’ said Ferguson. ‘For a young man coming to Chelsea it’s a hard challenge but he’s acquitted himself well and his team have responded. You hope, as a new manager, that you get an immediate response and he has.

‘I think there are similarities from when I came here from Aberdeen. I’d achieved something at Aberdeen and that helped me. It’s the same with Villas-Boas. He won the Europa League and the Portuguese league last year with Porto so that’s a help. After that, it’s the impression that the players get from him in terms of his knowledge of the game and man management.’

Mutual respect: Ferguson grew to have great admiration for Jose Mourinho

As he wrestles with his own selection headaches — a fit-again Rio Ferdinand is expected to play because Ferguson will want that experience even if Villas-Boas starts without Fernando Torres as well as the injured Didier Drogba — he says he sees Chelsea as a major threat again this season despite the impressive start that has been made in Manchester.

‘They’re a team with great experience and they’ll always pose a challenge to us,’ he said. ‘I think at the moment the Manchester teams are getting all the publicity but in the background Chelsea are lurking. They’ll be enjoying that: Manchester getting all the attention. But they will be there at the end of the season. There’s no doubt about that.’

That said, he would consider it an ‘incredible achievement’ if Villas-Boas emerges with the title next May. Ferguson had to wait until he was 35 to win the Scottish First Division Championship with St Mirren. A few months before Villas-Boas was born.