OPEN VIEW
When media magnate Rupert Murdoch was asked how he would manage Manchester United, if BSkyB (British satellite television company) came to power in the club in 1998, he replied: “I would have kept Alex Ferguson as head coach and prayed for his eternal life ".
Whoever Sir Alex is, who is 65 years old on New Year's Eve, he is not immortal. And for the three years that have passed since the last United championship, his reputation has been at stake more than once. This was not even observed “at the beginning of glorious deeds” at Old Trafford, where Ferguson, replacing Ron Atkinson, could not take him from the quarry. Which, however, does not prevent him - undoubtedly, one of the greatest football coaches of our time - to celebrate the upcoming 20-year anniversary of his work in the club in a week.
Ferguson’s team, not accustomed to exchanging for such trifles as the League Cup (unlike Jose Mourinho, who rolled a festive banquet a year ago), has already managed to demonstrate his competitiveness in the fight for more significant trophies this season. Moreover, she is ready to play in an attacking manner, meeting not only the requirements of the fans, but also the history of the club with its great traditions.
ONE BUT FIRE PASSION
The MJ coach, who has gone through fire, water and copper pipes over the past two decades, is also not averse to replenishing a collection of 17 trophies. In the process of their conquest, Ferguson did not give reason to doubt the qualities acquired long ago. In childhood, spent on the banks of Clyde, in Govan, in the Glasgow shipbuilding area, and in the Tool Workers' Union, he cultivated a belief in the team, which then helped to set priorities correctly: "The decision is made not for me or you, but for the club."
Club and loyalty to him - above all. “Devotion has always served me as the salvation anchor in the stormy sea of life,” reads the last sentence of his outstanding autobiography. Which implies the ability to skillfully maneuver in situations where not a single detail escapes the attention of the press, football officials, referees, long-standing rivals like Arsene Wenger and other opponents.
Sometimes Ferguson came to overly harsh rebuffs. However, members of the community with the speaking name “United” love him for that. Even despite the fact that they themselves had to experience all the consequences of verbal wars.
After 10 years of working together, Ole Gunnar Solskher paid tribute to the mentor’s justice: “If you don’t give all your best, then you will certainly learn about it. But he will never pick on if he sees that you are trying your best. He has always been a winner. And a great commander, with laconic, but incredibly inspiring farewells. "
THREE YEARS IN SHOES
On November 6, 1986, when Ferguson first got to the MJ training base in Cliff, he was thinking about how to inspire players - in the standings, the team was trailing penultimate. But he soon realized that first of all it was necessary to lower someone to the ground, closer to harsh reality.
By that time, Gordon Strakan, Fergie’s former ward in Aberdeen, had already warned that a complete mess was going on in training, and drunkenness was in the order of things. “It doesn't look like they were having a party on Friday evenings,” Atkinson doubted. That means they had fun on the other six days of the week. Another player on the team admitted that after Ferguson's start-up defeat against Oxford United, the atmosphere in the team could be described with the words “lost sheep are now being properly slaughtered.” “Properly” lasted more than three years.
Season 89/90 was a turning point. Much was decided in the fate of Ferguson himself, when in the duel of the third round of the Cup of the country with the Nottingham Forest, the scales tilted in one direction or the other. Manchester United won then - but what would be the reaction of the club's management if Oldham Athletic won (and he deserved it) in any of the following semifinal battles? One way or another, in a difficult year, the cartridges supported their coach and were rewarded for this with the first of 17 trophies.
So ended the first of three Ferguson stages in Manchester United. The second, from 1990 to 2003, with eight league titles, four national cups and an European Cup (Champions League 99), won by the “Red Devils” for the first time since 1968, will enter the football annals as a worthy example of a coaching career. With a lack of motivation, but quite satisfied with himself, in January 2001 Ferguson counted himself 16 months to retirement, which was a mistake both for himself and for the club.
In February 2002, he signed a new contract, but when Roman Abramovich approved Chelsea as a competitive club, Sir Alex managed to win only one more championship gold and a couple of cups. In addition, he was involved in scandals of various kinds: the departure of the secular chronicles star David Beckham; agent activity of son Jason; doping story with Rio Ferdinand; a dispute over ownership of a horse; the forced approval of Glaser's rise to power; the departure of Roy Keane and Ore van Nistelrooy.
FROM ANDERSON TO KLEBERSON
However, players come and go in all clubs. Viv Anderson worth £ 250,000, Brian MacLair (Celtic) and Steve Bruce were Ferguson's first purchases at Manchester United, which was a good place to start. Eric Canton’s intuitive purchase for £ 1.2 million, Peter Schmeichel’s transfer for half the price, and Kin’s taking under his nose the angry Kenny Dalglish also became deals that any club would envy.
Like any trainer, Ferguson had less successful examples of selection. Ralph Milne, acquired for past service at Dundee United, cost only 170 thousand pounds. But the goalkeeper of “Venice” Massimo Taibi, cost 4.5 million, was a more serious puncture. Not to mention the move of Juan Sebastian Veron to the breathtaking 28 "lemons", which is why Ferguson initially swelled with pride. When the journalists began to question the professional suitability of the Argentinean, a pejorative sounded to them: "You are all idiots over!"
Eric Djemba-Djemba and Kleberson once again emphasized the problems of importing poorly-promoted legionnaires, and the rivalry with Chelsea for Michael Ballack caliber stars was an ungrateful task. There were those who at the last moment got off the hook, safely opening in other clubs - John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, Alan Shearer and Paul Gascoigne.
NOW AND INS
Trophies also inevitably sailed into the distance. How can one not recall the opening lines of Tchaikovsky’s romance: “I would like to merge my sadness and sadness into a single word ...” This word, or rather, three is a win of the Champions League. “We were not lucky, it was not before, then we were not good enough. But they had to win at least one more European Cup. I hope we can do this before I retire, ”says Ferguson.
When this happens (and whether it will happen at all), no one is given to know. It is impossible not to agree that twenty years in one saddle is not a joke to you. In a week, the praise of Sir Alex will reach its climax. And it is still unknown whose compliments the maestro will like more - colleagues or players. The raptured Rafael Benitez, who was asked a good bashing on Old Trafford the weekend before last, was one of the first to shoot: “The only thing worth paying attention to is the number of titles he won and the time devoted to work.”
Paul Ince is the last of Ferguson’s ex-wards to follow in his footsteps. The former England midfielder recently headed in Macclesfield, not far from Manchester, one of the fourth-tier outsider teams. Despite the fact that, by soccer standards, clubs are a million kilometers apart, Ince was not afraid to say on his day of appointment: “We need to be up to the highest standards. Alex Ferguson always taught me that. ” And sooner or later, in a telephone conversation between the “Master” (the nickname Insa) and his former boss, it turns out that the coaching share is not easy. Neither in the prosperous Manchester United, nor in the seedy Macclesfield Town.
Being one of the most influential members of the coaching committee of the English Football Association, Ferguson advocates that club leaders show more patience, thanks to which he managed to achieve brilliant results. “Who are you saying this to?” - he asked with irony last Friday, when the topic of pressure on the coaches was raised. And a broad smile played on his face.
Translation by Andrey KARNAUKHOV