"Sir Alex will continue till he is 98!"

Sunderland manager Martin O’Neill believes his Manchester United counterpart can carry on till he reaches the age of 98.

Speaking ahead of Sunderland’s final match against the reigning premier league champions, O’Neill refused to accept that Sir Alex’s hunger and determination will be dented should arch-rivals City go on and win the league today. The 60-year-old, who played a season for Manchester City in 1981-82 said:

“Sir Alex will leave Manchester United when he feels it’s right. It won’t be because of a setback. To accuse him of lacking hunger, ambition and determination would be tantamount to heresy.

“He will have that until he’s 98 — and he may still be manager when he’s 98 with five European Cups on top of that. Those are things the man certainly does not lack. Those setbacks will only serve to make him madder.

“Will I still be going at 70? Well, I’m very fresh for my age. I need to win a couple of matches between now and then, though.”

City have made a remarkable comeback since going eight points behind United, but the Reds would rue having missed a few chances to kill the competition themselves. Sir Alex stated in an earlier interview that the 4-4 draw at home against Everton was the turning point of the season and O’Neill believes the same.

“Sir Alex will be really disappointed by the home draw with Everton. The Wigan game would have been bad enough to lose but to lose a 4-2 advantage against Everton, that would have hurt really badly. That result gave City a glimmer of hope and had they closed it out as they would normally, the result at the Etihad wouldn’t have mattered that much. Instead, it was a major blow. Evra hit a post to make it 5-2 and within 90 seconds it was 4-3. That game would have really irritated him.”

Speaking on his own team’s future, O’Neill admitted that big changes are expected this summer at the Stadium of Light.

“The first thing is to speak to the owner within the next couple of weeks. I think he genuinely sees the potential of the club. I didn’t take the job on any promises of phenomenal backing, I wanted to do the job. But we definitely need to freshen things up.”