England coach Roy Hodgson has heaped praise on Sir Alex Ferguson after Manchester United clinched the Premier League title on Monday.

The win secured United's 20th league title and underlined Ferguson's renowned longevity after 26 years at the helm.

"It's incredible," said Hodgson. "I think the most incredible thing about it is being able to do it year after year.

"There's no doubt that there is a certain lack of appetite that comes with winning things. It's very, very difficult to be as hungry for your second title as you were for your first and it must be even harder to be as hungry for your 25th title, or whatever it is now if you take all of Alex's titles together.

"We are talking about someone with incredible ability and an ability to keep himself fresh.

"How many Manchester United teams has he actually constructed in this period of time and this 25 years in which they have won 13 league titles and goodness knows how many cups and European cups?

"There's not much you can say really other than we'd all like to know how he's done it and what the secret is.

"To be frank, if we're going to talk about magicians in football then the only magicians I know are people like Sir Alex Ferguson, who year after year keeps producing incredible performances from his teams and his players and keeps being able to rebuild teams from the ashes of his previous team."