The fact that Manchester United are one of the most successful English football clubs ever, coming second only to their bitterest of rivals in Liverpool, means that the club has had more than a few legends over the years. There is an argument to make, though, that none of them are as important to what the football club is today as Sir Alex Ferguson.
The Scottish manager didn’t make a particularly exceptional player, but he was one of the best managers ever to sit in the dugout, setting a level of expectation at Old Trafford that no one has been able to live up to since.
Ferguson the Player
Alexander Chapman Ferguson was born in Glasgow on the 31st of December 1941. His playing career began when he was an amateur at Queen’s Park in Scotland, getting his debut as a 16-year-old striker. In spite of later describing that game as a ‘nightmare’, he did manage to get on the scoresheet as Queen’s Park lost 2-1. From there, Ferguson moved to Dunfermline, becoming a full-time professional as a result and going on to score 45 goals in 51 games. That was enough to catch the eye of Rangers, who signed him for £65,000; a record fee between Scottish sides.
He was only with the club for two seasons, but he did well, only to be blamed for a goal that the club conceded in the 1969 Scottish Cup Final when he struggled to make Billy McNeil. There were also accusations that he was discriminated against after marrying a Catholic. He left Rangers for Falkirk, then ended his playing career at Ayr United. In spite of his goalscoring exploits, he never really made it with the Scottish national team and was identified by the BBC as one of the best players from the country never to have played in a full international game for Scotland.
Becoming a Manager
In the June of 1974, Alex Ferguson was appointed the manager of East Stirlingshire, even though he was just 32 at the time. It was only a part-time job, but he soon earned a reputation as a disciplinarian who even the players were scared of. In the October, St Mirren asked him to take over as manager and Ferguson agreed after being given advice by Jock Stein. He managed the club for four years, taking them from a Second Division side that had crowds of around 1,000 to champions of the Scottish First Division three years later, playing exciting attacking football along the way.
The club is the only one that ever sacked Ferguson, a decision for which he took them to an industrial tribunal but lost. He took over as the manager of Aberdeen in 1978, having turned the club down a year earlier. He once again helped to turn the club’s fortunes around, winning the Scottish title three times and supplementing that with both a Scottish League Cup and four Scottish Cups. In Europe, Aberdeen won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in the 1982-1983 season, then the European Super Cup in 1983, cementing his reputation as one of the best young managers around.
Ferguson & Manchester United
On the sixth of November 1986, Alex Ferguson was appointed as the manager of Manchester United. Although things started slowly for the Scot, to the point that he was expected to lose his job if the Red Devils lost to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup, they actually beat Forest and went on to win the cup that season, reportedly saving his job. The rest, as they say, is history, with Ferguson going on to become the most successful manager in the history of the football club and, indeed, of football itself. Part of his ability to achieve so much was the excellent Academy system at Old Trafford, upon which he leaned often.
The ‘Class of ’92’ will long go down in history as one of the best intakes of players ever to play for the club, with youngsters like Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes all having a long-term impact on the club’s success. Under Ferguson, Manchester United dominated the newly launched Premier League, winning title after title and also picking up a couple of European Cups along the way. By the time he made the decision to retire, Ferguson had won 13 top-flight titles at Old Trafford, as well as five FA Cups, four League Cups, two Champions Leagues, the European Cup Winners’ Cup, the European Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Ferguson turned the Red Devils into one of the best teams ever to play the game, setting a standard in the dugout that no manager since his retirement has been able to follow.