Dubai's paper, 7DAYS asks a tanned Fergie a few pertinent questions:
"If you're going to have a dream, make sure it’s a big one," enthused Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson at the launch of the United Soccer School in Dubai yesterday.
Such gushes of romanticism from one of football’s least sentimental characters are as uncommon as Mancunians inside Old Trafford.
Perhaps it was the welcome dose of winter sunshine, though Sir Alex’s genial disposition probably had more to do with Sunday’s win over Chelsea than the opportunity to escape the gloom of a north-of-England winter.
Manchester United Soccer Schools (MUSS) are coming to Dubai, and for budding footballers and Dubai Sports City investors this can be nothing but good news.
We’ve known for aeons that United were coming to town. But yesterday provided the first chance for the city’s media to ask: "Why here?"
"Dubai is our first Soccer School location in the Middle East, and when you see the plan and the vision that Sports City has put to us it makes you wonder why we didn’t come out here sooner," explained the Scot.
"It is a truly amazing set-up. The platform is there for any young person to develop their skills. It’s a wonderful vision that Dubai Sports City has and I look forward to that vision 100 per cent."
On United’s chances of unearthing a David Beckham or a Ryan Giggs right here in Dubai Ferguson wouldn’t be drawn, saying instead:
"20-25 years ago China, Korea and Japan weren’t considered footballing nations but with the drive and ambition they’ve created over there they’ve improved tremendously.
"I think when people have the ambition and the drive to do something there’s nothing to stop them achieving their aims. What’s happening here in Dubai is that there is a structure in place.
"There’s nothing to stop any country in this world from progress in football, because all you need is a pair of football boots and a ball, that’s the wonderful thing about the game of football."
The question on 7DAYS’ lips yesterday was why on earth are United sending their coaches to places like Dubai and EuroDisney, and not a more traditional breeding ground - somewhere like Brazil perhaps? Ferguson had the answer, kind of.
"The problem we’ve got with Brazilian boys is their national status," he said. "If they aren’t EU citizens then they have to be fully fledged internationals to qualify for a work permit, plus they can’t leave the country until they’re 18...." (7DAYS: "But won’t you have a similar problem here in the Middle East?") Ferguson: "Yes, it will be the same, exactly the same in fact...
"But the thing is, Brazil is such a massive country so it’s pretty hard to say you could put a Soccer School in any particular area. We could always put it on the Copacabana Beach!"
The joke hid the sinister truth. United couldn’t care less about Brazil because Brazil couldn’t really care less about United. They have their own heroes to idolise, their own clubs to support.
But - crucially - what they don’t have is the kind of disposable incomes you would find in places like Dubai, Hong Kong or EuroDisney.
Besides, United employ a full-time scout in Brazil (who presumably doesn’t have a problem with it being such a "massive" country) whose job it is to report back if he discovers a bright prospect.
United don’t need to send a team of coaches halfway across the world in search of the next Pele - and that is not the reason they are coming to the United Arab Emirates.