SOCCER:SO VOCIFEROUSLY were the feathers being spat between the dugouts in last season's Manchester derbies, it is reasonable to assume the relationship between Mark Hughes and Alex Ferguson is not the warmest.

For two men with such notable combative streaks, who spent the last couple of years in a locale that obliges them to agree to disagree as club rivals, taunts came with the territory.

Now settled comfortably in his Fulham tracksuit, a glint comes to Hughes’s eye as he reflects upon his rapport with the godfather of the Premier League. The competitive edge between them is something to be cherished, but it is not negative.

Although the Welshman has always been too much of his own man to join what Roberto Martinez described as a cartel of “loyalists” whose admiration for Ferguson is undisguised, to interpret that as friction between the two men is, Hughes says, wide of the mark.

“He likes to make sure we know our place,” he explains. “And rightly so. He is always competitive and to come up against guys he has worked with and brought through, he has a lot of affection for them and he is always supportive. But he always likes to beat them, that’s for sure.

“Invariably he picks his strongest team against me. Maybe that’s a sign of respect because he knows I set up my teams to give them a hard time.”

He was clearly touched that one of the first phone calls he received after he felt the force of the Abu Dhabi axe at Manchester City was from Old Trafford. Ferguson’s words of consolation helped.

“The fact he was very quickly on the phone is something I am very conscious of and was very grateful for at the time,” says Hughes.

Hughes is confidently throwing himself into the job at hand at Craven Cottage, and is more focused on the fact this weekend is a home debut than any emotions about a reunion with old neighbours.