It seems to me that there is no in-between with Ferguson. I admire United and all they have achieved, but there don't appear to be many neutrals who find it as easy to applaud them in the same way they did with the successful Liverpool teams of the past or the present Arsenal side. Ferguson has lived with that pressure ever since he turned them into the Premiership champions 11 years ago.
He has a style that is unique, one that I recognise as Scottish and working-class, which will not accept anything but the greatest effort from his players. In return he takes the public pressure away from that team. That does not make him popular outside Old Trafford, but then most of us never really see the way he is in private. Beyond the defensiveness, the occasional antagonism, there is an element to Ferguson's character that is hardly ever acknowledged.
What is noticeable about Ferguson is that he is almost never criticised by former players. There's a reason for that. They might not always have got along with him, but as they get older they understand the reasons why he made certain decisions.
People assume that Ferguson and I don't get on. There's the younger generation of United fans who assume that's the case because I am a former Liverpool player who has criticised his teams on television, and those with longer memories who recall that he excluded me from Scotland's 1986 World Cup squad. But on the rare occasions that we see each other, we get on just fine. However much you might disagree with Ferguson, it's difficult to fall out with him.
I don't think the English quite understand what he achieved in Scotland. Breaking the Old Firm's grip on the title - he won the Scottish championship three times - as well as winning the European Cup-Winners' Cup was a feat that has not been matched since. The eight Premiership titles put him in the same league as Paisley, winner of three European Cups, and that's not something I say lightly.
Because he divides opinion so sharply he doesn't perhaps always get just recognition for his achievements. United would not be the global brand that they have become if they did not have Ferguson. You don't become a club worth £800 million, who are famous all over the world, if you finish runners-up in the Premiership eight times. To become that famous, you have to win it eight times.
Every time it has looked like his team have been finished, Ferguson has been able to pull something out of nowhere. Doing that has been tough, it hasn't made him popular either, but it shouldn't obscure what he has achieved when he walks along the touchline tomorrow night for the 1,000th time.