In terms of modern football, few managers can claim to have had the influence on their football club and the game in general that Sir Alex Ferguson managed. The Scot became synonymous with Manchester United thanks to the unprecedented success he brought to Old Trafford prior to his decision to retire in 2013. He was not an overly successful player in his own right, but he did become one of the best managers that the English game has seen, with only Bob Paisley at Liverpool laying claim to a better games-per-trophy ratio than the Glaswegian racked up.
Starting as a Footballer
Alexander Chapman Ferguson was born on the 31st of December 1941 in the Scottish city of Glasgow. The son of Elizabeth and Alexander Beaton Ferguson, he grew up seeing his father working as a plater’s helper in the nearby shipping industry. He and his younger brother, Martin, both attended Broomloan Road Primary School and Govan High School, with the latter being where he began to play football. He soon started playing for Harmony Row Boys Club, based in Govan, moving to Drumchapel Amateurs, which was a youth club with a good reputation.
Alongside his football, Ferguson took on an apprenticeship at a factory in Hillington, working as a toolmaker and later being appointed to the role of union shop steward. He was still an amateur when he signed with the Scottish side Queen’s Park, making his debut as a 16-year-old striker. Although he later described his first game as a ‘nightmare’, he did score his club’s only goal in a 2-1 defeat to Stranraer. He was also the scorer of Queen’s Park’s only goal when the side lost 7-1 to Queen of the South, during which former England international Ivor Broadis scored four goals.
Making It as a Player
Although he scored 20 goals in his first 31 games playing for Queen’s Park, Ferguson was unable to hold down a place and so moved to St Johnstone in 1960. He was still on a part-time contract, combining his playing with work in a shipyard in Govan. Again, he scored consistently but struggled to hold down a place, often requesting a transfer. When the manager was all but forced to pick him for a match against Rangers, Ferguson scored a hat-trick in a shock 3-2 win that persuaded Dunfermline to sign him in 1964. He finally became a full-time professional there.
After more good performances, Rangers bought Ferguson for £65,000, which was a record fee for a transfer from one Scottish side to another. He spent two seasons at Ibrox, performing well in Europe but being blamed for a goal conceded in the 1969 Scottish Cup Final. He later felt that he was excluded from the team after he married a Catholic. He reluctantly chose to leave the club, later joining Falkirk instead of Nottingham Forest because Cathy wanted to stay in Scotland. He played more games there than anywhere else, eventually being given the role of player-coach.
Ferguson the Manager Is Born
When John Prentice became Falkirk manager, he stripped Ferguson of his coaching role, which the player didn’t like. As a result, he moved to Ayr United, seeing out his career there. In the June of 1974, Ferguson was given the manager’s role at East Stirlingshire, in spite of his young age of 32. The part-time job paid £40 per week, with the Scot developing a reputation as someone who instilled discipline in the players. Just four months later and Ferguson was given the manager’s role at St Mirren, who were below East Stirlingshire but were considered to be a bigger club.
He managed the club for four years, transforming the team from a mid-table Second Division side with a small crowd to First Division champions in 1977, discovering numerous talents along the way. St Mirren sacked Ferguson, against whom he sued for wrongful dismissal, losing at a tribunal. Having turned down the role as Aberdeen manager in 1977, he eventually took the job in 1978 when Billy McNeill joined Celtic. Although one of the biggest clubs in Scotland, they had only won the league once prior to Ferguson’s appointment. They came close to winning silverware in the first couple of seasons, but ultimately missed out.
Becoming Manchester United Manager
Sir Alex Ferguson. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Sie6ZQFe9q
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) February 13, 2018
In the 1980s, Alex Ferguson enjoyed huge success with Aberdeen, winning the league in 1980, putting in place many of the tactics that he would later use at Manchester United. In the 1982-1983 campaign, Aberdeen won the European Cup Winners’ Cup thanks to wins over both Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, as well as winning the European Super Cup and the Scottish Cup. They also won a league and cup double the following season, earning Ferguson an Order of the British Empire in 1985. English clubs were keen on appointing Ferguson, including both Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur.
It was Manchester United that finally persuaded Ferguson to head to England after sacking Ron Atkinson in the November of 1986. He was depressed by the level of fitness of some of the players, worried that they were drinking too much. He took them to 11th in his first season, having been 21st when he took over. Major signings of players like Steve Bruce and Brian McClair helped the Red Devils to a second-place finish, just nine points behind title winners Liverpool. Ferguson famously declared that he wanted to knock the Merseysiders ‘off their perch’, which he would go on to do in spectacular fashion.
Winning the Lot
PHOTO Sir Alex Ferguson lifts the #BPL trophy for the 13th and final time as #MUFC manager pic.twitter.com/W16KQSw2Fs
— Premier League (@premierleague) May 12, 2013
In the 1989-1990 season, United’s form wasn’t ideal and a 5-1 defeat to rivals Manchester City, amongst other poor results, was too much for some supporters. A banner appeared that read, “Three years of excuses and it’s still crap … ta-ra Fergie”. There were calls for him to be sacked, with his job saved only by the fact that they won the FA Cup. That proved to be the start of what can only be described as an unprecedented period of success for just one man. Whilst Liverpool’s boot room had produced a seeming conveyor belt of successful managers, Old Trafford had never done the same.
Instead, it could be suggested that the club has only ever really had two hugely successful managers, coming in the form of Sir Matt Busby and Ferguson himself. The launch of the Premier League proved to be a critical moment in the club’s history, with the Manchester United hierarchy positioning the club to be able to take advantage of the new riches brought in by the broadcaster. They won the inaugural version of the new-look top-flight, winning the Premier League and FA Cup double in the 1993-1994 campaign, racking up an impressive 4-0 win over Chelsea in the final.
European Success
Ferguson was criticised in the mid-1990s when a number of players were allowed to leave and no one was brought in to replace them. Instead, players were promoted from the youth system and the likes of Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and David Beckham were labelled ‘Fergie’s Fledglings’. This led to Match of the Day pundit Alan Hansen declaring that ‘you can’t win anything with kids’, but United did just that. They picked up more trophies, including an FA Cup win against rivals Liverpool in 1996. The most impressive win was in the 1998-1999 season, when they won a treble.
They retained the Premier League and defeated Newcastle United in the FA Cup, making it to the final of the Champions League to boot. It looked as if they were going to lose to Bayern Munich in the final, with the Germans leading 1-0 from the sixth minute of the match, only for an Ole Gunnar Solskjær brace to see them win 2-1 in the dying moments. Ferguson talked about retiring numerous times in his career, but was persuaded to keep going each time. This allowed him to rebuild his Manchester United team, bringing in players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.
The Red Devils won their second Champions League at the end of the 2007-2008 season, having already won the Premier League title. This time it was Chelsea that they played, winning on penalties. The takeover of Manchester City saw another rival emerge, this time in the same city, with Ferguson feeling the need to win one more title after the Cityzens won on the final day of the 2011-2012 campaign. He managed to do exactly that, winning the club’s 20th league title, and his 13th, at the end of the 2012-2013 season, retiring and giving the go-ahead for David Moyes to be his replacement.