When I was AVB's age I ran two pubs on the side and my players got about £5 a week

The opulent splendour of Chelsea’s King’s Road, with its well-heeled residents, is a far cry from the gritty streets of Glasgow and its stoic folk.

But the two contrasting locations provide the fascinating subtext to Sunday’s showdown between Manchester United and Chelsea - the intriguing head-to-head battle between their respective bosses.

When Sir Alex Ferguson was 33, the same age Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas is now, he was managing East Stirlingshire on a shoestring and running two pubs in his spare time while trying to make his name in football.

Ferguson worked his way to the top the hard way, his various experiences instilling in him the mindset and character that has made the Scot arguably the greatest football manager of all time.

Not for Ferguson the fast-track route the urbane Villas-Boas, who comes from a wealthy background and speaks six languages, has enjoyed on his rise to the big time at such a young age.

“It was a part-time team I took over at East Stirling,” recalled Ferguson, as he addressed the contrast between himself and Villas-Boas at the same age.

“The players were on about £5 a week and I was running two pubs in Glasgow, so it was a different thing altogether [to Villas-Boas].

“But the one common denominator is that you want to be successful. I set about it in a determined fashion and I wasn’t going to fail.

“I’d chosen that life [as a football manager]. I’d been an engineer and I made up my mind I wasn’t going to go back to engineering.

“So I took all my coaching badges when I was young - 23 - so I had prepared to be a manager.

“It’s important if you want to be in the game that you do that. That involves taking all the courses so you can show anybody who interviews you for a job that you’re ready.”

Undefeated in five games and with positive noises about his style coming from the Chelsea dressing-room, Villas-Boas would not seem to have encountered any problems managing players of a similar age to him.

Success at Porto last season meant he commanded respect following his appointment at Chelsea, but the young boss could still learn a thing or two from the Godfather of managers in terms of how to survive at the top.

Ferguson, who at 69 is 36 years older than Villas-Boas and celebrates 25 years in charge of United in November, said: “I never had a problem dealing with people my age or round 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 confrontation because it’s always around the corner, in all shapes and forms.

“You should contain all your thoughts and decision-making to the performance on the football field.

“Other parts that become contentious, whether it’s players’ behaviour or discipline, you deal with as they come along, but you don’t go searching for it. I never did.”

Despite the obvious contrast in their routes to their current positions, Ferguson acknowledged there were similarities between himself and Villas-Boas.

Ferguson took on the United job having led Aberdeen to the Scottish title and Cup-Winners’ Cup Final success over Real Madrid, while Villas-Boas arrived at Stamford Bridge boasting the Portuguese title and cup and the Europa League crown.

“I think there are similarities,” said Fergie. “When I came down from Aberdeen I’d achieved something and it’s the same for him. He won the double with Porto last year - the Europa League and the title.

“Those achievements will stand him in good stead in terms of the start of his tenure at Chelsea.

“After that, the impression the players will get from him in terms of his knowledge of the game, his man-management skills and how he handles all of that, only the future knows. But he’s had a good start.

“Iit would be an incredible achievement [if Villas-Boas were to win the Premier League]. That somebody so young could go and do that would be incredible. You couldn’t dispute that.

“To come to Chelsea is a great challenge, a hard challenge for someone of his age, but he seems to have acquitted himself very well.

“His team have responded, which is what you hope for as a manager when you go to a new club. You want an immediate response and he’s got that.”

And the Portuguese conceded taking on Ferguson head to head was a significant challenge.

“We met the other week in Nyon, at the UEFA coaches' conference,” said Villas-Boas. “He was coming out of the loo and I was just there. Seriously.

“We said hello, spoke about Stoke. We are rivals but at this stage, as a manager, I can’t feel like an equal because his CV speaks for itself.

“You just have to praise someone who wins that much in the game. When you look at Ferguson, Mourinho and Guardiola, it’s incredible the amount of time these people win and the amount of passion and how driven they are to be successful.

“It’s something impressive. It’s pretty good to be able to live with these examples at this moment. Hopefully people will see me in the same light in 10 years’ time.”