Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has hailed Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho.

Ferguson believes that the Portuguese's "charisma" helps him to make his players give their all for him.

"Jose is very intelligent," he said to academics at Harvard Business School in Boston. "He has charisma, his players play for him, and he is a good looking guy. I think I have most of those things, too, apart from his good looks.

"He's got a confidence about himself, saying 'We'll win this' and 'I'm the Special One'.

"I could never come out and say we're going to win this game. It's maybe a wee bit of my Scottishness?"

Ferguson said earlier this month that Mourinho has the ability to replace him as the United manager.