Ince perfect

So how much pleasure would it give Ince to knock Manchester United out of the biggest trophy still available to them this season? “No pleasure whatsoever,” he insisted. He lied. You could see it in the eyes, sense it in the soul of a player who, at 38, knows the legs are not what they were, yet refuses to yield to the possibility that the desire, hunger, knowhow have nothing to offer this season and, possibly, even next.

“Obviously, I want to win,” Ince added, after a brief pause. “There’s belief in our team, don’t think that there isn’t. The gap’s not as big as it looks.”

Ince has not yet grown diplomatic airs or retreated out of the toughness bred into him in east London, born in Ilford and raised by an aunt in Dagenham. So when he speaks with respect of “Sir Alex” you know that it is genuine and deeply felt. He describes Ferguson as the best manager he has worked with, despite the internal combustion that they triggered in each other. Furthermore, he tends to consult Ferguson when he in turn aims for management and coaching — and Ince is more than willing to say what no current England player dares to utter in public about Sven-Göran Eriksson.

“He’s taken liberties with England,” says Ince. “Maybe because he came from Lazio — and in Italy you can get away with anything so long as you get it right on the pitch — but he’s definitely abused the situation. Terry Venables lost the job because he carried too much baggage. Glenn Hoddle did nothing wrong except make one controversial statement and was forced to resign. Eriksson has done far worse and it’s really bad timing with the World Cup coming up this summer in Germany.”

Ince doesn’t pause, any more than he says he will if there is a 50-50 ball to be won this afternoon. “The mistrust of what Eriksson has been saying is going to stick in the throat of some players,” Ince said. “But if the England lads have any balls about it, they’ll just get on with the job of trying to win the World Cup. If Glenn Hoddle was leaving Wolves tomorrow, we would get on with it. It’s having the bollocks to be men and take it. I’ve done that with Sir Alex loads of times.”

He’s back on today’s theme, the meeting of minds with a manager Ince believes will tough out any situation, even with the changes happening apace around Old Trafford. He was a team leader in the middle of Ferguson’s reign and continued: “You never knew where you stood with Sir Alex. I came into the side after Bryan Robson, who was my hero when I was a kid at West Ham. I took over from him and Roy Keane took my place.

“I had six great years, played in the 1993-94 United which was the best (side) that Sir Alex put together. We won a lot and had plenty of hairdryer moments. But I know this: he’s the best manager I’ve worked with and that was the best United team.”

Better than the 1999 European champions? “Certainly.” Better than the present day? “No danger. Wayne Rooney would get into any side but in the spine of the team I played in, we had Mark Hughes, Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona, Peter Schmeichel, Andrei Kanchelskis, Steve Bruce and Denis Irwin.”

Ince’s eyes light up with the familiar competitive glint when he thinks of that golden year. He has a slightly more rounded face today and admits to carrying an extra pound or two around the stomach, but he believes that he retains the leadership quality Ferguson is finding hard to come across after calling time on Keane.

“My days of running box-to-box are in the past,” Ince admitted. “But the desire and hunger are there. It’s down to me, as an experienced player, to give the others something.”

He pauses again and narrows his eyes as if fixing United in his sights before saying: “Sir Alex will know that if there’s a 50-50 ball, I still expect to win that tackle. I probably will still want to win it when I’m 65.

“I don’t think I could play in the Premiership every week, but the way Glenn wants to play it, I’m the pivotal man, the holding player in a 4-3-3. I make my tackles, I can afford to make that little surge late in the game if I’ve saved something physically. And because I’ve been out with a thigh muscle injury for four months, I’m feeling very fresh at the moment.

“I’m actually disappointed that Giggsy won’t be fit for today’s match,” he added. “He’s the best mate I have left at Old Trafford — and I was looking forward to going through him! I’m also disappointed that Paul Scholes is out. That leaves only Gary Neville of the players I played with.” And he repeats again that this United is not on a par with the his team that won Manchester United’s first Championship after a 26-year lapse.

In full, uncompromising flow, Ince believed himself to be paramount to that team. Ferguson did not totally agree, having sold him to Inter Milan and later saying in his book that Ince, who apparently wanted the other players to call him “Guv’nor”, was becoming a big-time Charlie. There was only room for one Guv’nor around Old Trafford and, as Roy Keane recently discovered, he doesn’t figure in the team.

Ince, who played 278 times for United, will always be accused of being Judas every time he is seen in the vicinity of West Ham after parading an Old Trafford shirt before he’d even left Upton Park. He also had two years in Italy and then crossed the East Lancs divide to play for Liverpool.

But Hoddle trusts his man and points out: “This game really can be won and lost in the tunnel. The FA Cup is still the biggest domestic cup in the world so it’s easy for players to get too hyped up about it. Even Paul, with all his experience, can get too worked up in the tunnel.” However Hoddle, whose forte has always been to plot something for special occasions, something involving tactics or personnel, was trying to be coy about this evening’s contest. “We’ve worked with different shapes, and all will be revealed at the kick-off,” he said. “But with Ince, Mark Kennedy and Darren Anderton, we’ve possibly got more experience in that part of the pitch than United. That is an area we can exploit and possibly do some damage.”

Ince, of course, does not think he will lose control of his motivation or emotions in the tunnel or on the field. Reflecting again on his parting with Ferguson, he insisted: “I’m a man, I could take it. I was upset at the time, but hey, I was going to Inter Milan, wasn’t I? It was a great thing in my life and you have to look forward.”

He says that the ructions between himself and Fergie never lasted more than a few days. “He never held grudges longer than it took to reach the next game,” recalled Ince. “Some players would go away and sulk, I could take it and give it. Usually the hairdryer stuff was about standards and not results. I remember when we were three goals up against Norwich at Carrow Road, and I took off on a little mazy run. He came in the dressing room screaming and shouting. I was also fuming because if you’re three up you’re entitled to take things on. I couldn’t see his reasoning, but I do now.”

Ince also claims that, with hindsight, he understands more clearly why Ferguson got rid of him, cashing in eight times the £1m he paid to West Ham. “He told me he wanted to bring Nicky Butt through. I wasn’t happy to hear it, I didn’t think my time was up. But he was the gaffer, and maybe I will be a gaffer myself one day.” He plays today in a Wolves team into which Hoddle may throw Tomasz Frankowski, the £1.4m Pole whose clearance came through on Friday. His first training session with the club was only yesterday but Hoddle believes that he might just have the quality to spring from the Spanish second division straight into the FA Cup shock Wolves are plotting today.

It’s a tall order, but it would be even taller without the presence of Ince and the new man Hoddle is backing to end the barrenness of his team’s scoring potential.

Meanwhile, Ince looks beyond the FA Cup. He regards his job, and Wolves’s priority, as winning promotion to the Premiership next season. If they do, even though he is thinking about possibly one more season, he has already admitted that he doesn’t believe he has the legs or the lungs to compete “among the big boys”.

So his last shot at glory is Molineux today against the club that saw him at the peak of his powers. I put it to him that 38 is a spring chicken, after all the Brazilian Romario scored a hat-trick last Sunday and celebrates his 40th birthday today.

Ince burst out laughing at the comparison. “Standing around in the penalty box and scoring goals,” says Ince of the Brazilian brushed by genius, “is different to what I’m about. There’s a lot more effort required where I’m playing.”