Sir Alex Ferguson claimed only four of the Man Utd players he managed were world class and there are some huge absences

Sir Alex Ferguson claims he only managed four world-class players in his glittering 26-year reign in charge of Manchester United.

During his time at United, Ferguson won 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups and two Champions League titles.

He mastered the ability of building a number of special squads throughout his tenure, knowing exactly when to move players on and replace them.

But while Ferguson coached so many players who are deemed to be some of the best to play in the Premier League, he has incredibly high standards of what it means to be world-class.

In fact, Ferguson thinks only Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Scholes worth of such a tag.

"If you read the papers or listen to the television commentators, we seem to be awash with 'world-class' footballers," he wrote on his 2015 book Leading: Learning from Life and My Years at Manchester United.

"I don't mean to demean or criticise any of the great or very good footballers who played for me during my 26-year career at United, but there were only four who were world class: [Eric] Cantona, [Ryan] Giggs, [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Paul] Scholes.

"And of the four Cristiano was like an ornament on the top of a Christmas tree."

Image: Getty

In the same book, Ferguson did slightly contradict himself when he named the one player who would be guaranteed a spot in his best ever XI.

Despite all the superstars he managed, Ferguson singled out the versatile and consistent Denis Irwin, who played 468 times for United and lifted seven Premier League titles.

He explained: “Honestly, I would say Denis Irwin would be the one certainty to get in the team. I called him an eight out of 10.

“At Highbury in one game, he had a bad pass back in the last minute and [Dennis] Bergkamp came in and scored.

"After the game, the press said: ‘You must be disappointed in that pass back.’ I said: ‘Well, one mistake in 10 years isn‘t bad.’ He was an unbelievable player.”