Ferguson lays down the law that silence is golden for his new boy wonder

At Old Trafford it is known as the Ryan Giggs treatment and Sir Alex Ferguson reminded everyone of its conditions yesterday. Cristiano Ronaldo will not be rushed into the first team, he said, but will be on the bench at Newcastle today. As for interview requests, forget it. At 18, Ronaldo may already have shown he is on first-name terms with the ball but it will be a long time before he is on similar terms with any journalist. And that, Ferguson emphasised with one of his impenetrable stares, is the way it is. Like it or lump it.

So the rules are set, and anyone who steps outside the boundaries will face the full storm of Ferguson's rage. The last time he did this, when Giggs burst on to the scene 12 years ago, Des Lynam criticised the manager on Match of the Day, but that will not hold any sway for the Manchester United manager. As long as Ronaldo is under Ferguson's stewardship, he will be handled as delicately as bone china. "He's a little boy," said Ferguson of the ￡12.2m signing.

The challenge for Ferguson, that notorious control freak, is whether he can dictate Ronaldo's lifestyle as he did, say, with Giggs, when more than ever before footballers are front-page news and, with David Beckham in Spain, the tabloids are desperate for a new hero.

Ferguson describes the modern media as a "monster" and Ronaldo was given a taste of things to come when he had his first shopping expedition in Manchester last week and a group of paparazzi jumped out from behind St Ann's church. Rumour has it that six-figure offers for his life story have been shoved under the door of his hotel room.

What Ferguson will not abide is the egotism that can sometimes come with being good looking and talented and that, at various stages of their careers, he has suspected in Giggs, Lee Sharpe and, most tellingly, David Beckham.

"There is a time for every top young player when they are attracted to the lights like a moth. It can be wonderful in the beginning but you soon get fed up with it," said the manager.

"With Ryan we didn't want a repeat of what George Best had in the 60s or the Gazza syndrome, so we threw a veil around him. And Ryan was clever, too. People would ask him for interviews and he would say he couldn't because I had said so. Half the time I didn't know anything about it.

"We'll help Ronaldo the same way. You can't do anything about the media frenzy but in terms of how he lives his life and the access to him it will all be controlled. It helped Ryan and I think he will say that, too. And it will be good for Ronaldo. He's only 18, remember, so he needs people to look after him."

Giggs, as Ferguson says, declares his appreciation of the manager's paternal instincts but the Welshman also has his fair share of stories highlighting how a young player can come unstuck at Old Trafford.

On one occasion, when he was 17 and had played about 20 first-team games, Giggs recalls several older players such as Bryan Robson and Steve Bruce had been given club cars. "I suppose I was too young to know any better. I knocked on the gaffer's door and gave him my best speech: 'I'm playing regularly now, I've done well and I think I deserve a car.' He went ballistic: 'A car? More like a bike, you mean.' It's fair to say I never went into his office again."

Sharpe, well up there in the list of players whose eyebrows have been singed by Ferguson's "hairdryer" treatment, believes the young players who came up through the ranks, or who joined for small fees, are treated far more strictly by Ferguson than those in Ronaldo's position who sign for big money.

On one occasion Ferguson found out that Sharpe, fresh out of digs and having just bought his first house, was throwing a party and that the guests included Giggs and three of the apprentice players. Knowing the nature of the beast, the most revealing insight of life at Old Trafford is not that Ferguson broke off from a dinner in Morecambe and, still dressed in bow tie and dinner jacket, went round "all guns blazing," but the way he addressed his players. Rather than refer to them by name, the other partygoers remember him storming in, yelling: "Five! Eleven!" - their respective shirt numbers.

Sharpe recalls being told to give up the ￡45,000 mortgage, his Suzuki Vitara, a brand new set of drums and even his pet dog. He was then ordered to move back in with the appren tices. He says: "It was a case of: 'You're back in digs.' So that was it - house sold, girlfriend back to Birmingham. That was the last time I saw her, I think."

Whatever Ferguson does, however, he does it for the benefit of the team. And the manager is acutely aware that he will not be able to coax the best out of Ronaldo if the teenager is distracted by Manchester's nightlife, fine wines and even finer women.

To that effect, Ferguson has appointed his youth team coach Francisco Filho (a Brazilian) as Ronaldo's temporary minder and has also overseen the appointment of Marc Starr, a Portuguese-speaking Mancunian whose previous claim to fame was as a percussionist for Doves, as a full-time interpreter.

Ronaldo's first English lesson is scheduled for the coming week and, on the instructions of his manager, he should quickly become fluent in the language of "no comment."

Young stars Ferguson has tamed

Ryan Giggs So strict was Ferguson during Giggs's formative years at Old Trafford that in 1991, shortly after the 17-year-old made his debut, he even prevented him signing a boot deal that would have earned him ￡300,000.

David Beckham Ferguson shielded a fresh-faced Beckham from the media after one swish of the right boot to score from 57 yards against Wimbledon on the opening day of the 1996-97 season helped establish the future England captain, then 21 and in his seventh year at the club, as a household name. So intent was Ferguson on keep Beckham out of the headlines journalists were threatened with bans for even raising his name.

Lee Sharpe One of the players who can occasionally bring a wince of regret to Ferguson's features. Sharpe made his debut at the age of 16 in 1988 and won the PFA young player of the year award in 1991, but Ferguson could do little about the player's nocturnal activities and, after a number of injuries, he was discarded.

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