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It is one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s greatest strengths. When the chips are down – and, boy, were they down at 1.34am in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on May 22 – the Manchester United manager retains an almost superhuman ability to project an aura of invincibility.
Just as he had looked unflappable on the touchline at the Nou Camp in Barcelona nine years earlier, when his first Champions League final entered stoppage time with United trailing Bayern Munich 1-0, so Ferguson was a picture of Buddhist calm when John Terry stepped up to take the penalty that, if converted, would have allowed Chelsea to lift the European Cup.
So, was that expression born of the unwavering self-belief that the tables would be turned again? “No, I thought we were done,” Ferguson says, shaking his head as if he still cannot comprehend the situation. “I thought we were done.”
But you looked so defiant, so confident. “I think that’s true,” he says. “But when they took their second-last penalty I clasped my hands and I prayed. He nearly saved it, [Edwin] Van der Sar. But once the ball went in I said to myself, ‘Don’t ever pray again.’
“Because when I was in my first cup final as manager of Aberdeen we were 1-0 up, and Rangers scored two goals in the last two minutes of injury time. . . I had prayed as well, that day, and I thought I would never do it again. They beat us 2-1, even though I had prayed to God.”
Ferguson doesn’t open up to the media much these days. Press briefings are kept to a minimum, journalists are banned with almost comical regularity, one-on-one interviews are as rare as silverware is for Manchester City and just about everyone is left wanting more; which is why it always seems such a treat when the greatest British manager of his generation – possibly ever – lowers his guard long enough to offer an insight into one of sport’s more extraordinary minds.
One of the accusations that has been levelled at the United manager in the past is that he is a bully. So is he? “Absolutely not,” Ferguson says. “I did look up ‘bully’ in the dictionary once. And as I remember, it said a bully is somebody who preys on the weak – where weak is defined as somebody weaker than they [the bully] are.
“If you look at some of the people I have stood up to over the years, as a manager – and I have had dust-ups with all sorts of people in that dressing-room – generally speaking they are much, much bigger than me. There is nothing bullying about that.”
OK, so what, if anything or anybody, scares you? “Er . . . there were one or two footballers who were . . . ” Ferguson pauses. “Fear is a funny thing, isn’t it?” he continues. “I think when you drive, you have a fear. In heavy traffic. When it’s going quickly.”
Brilliant. The image of Ferguson quivering behind the wheel of his Audi A8 as other cars bomb past on the motorway must surely be one of the most unlikely imaginable. That, presumably, must be why he usually employs a chauffeur.
But surely there is somebody who has put the frighteners up you? “Well, the Celtic defender John McNamee, mainly,” Ferguson says. “I phoned him up to tell him I was mentioning him in Managing My Life [his 1999 autobiography], and he was killing himself laughing. He was a daunting figure.”
McNamee’s footballing philosophy was summed up during a visit by Chelsea to St James’ Park in the late1960s. Minutes into the game, Alan Birchenall, the Chelsea midfield player, embarked on a mazy run from the right flank. McNamee, by then a hero at Newcastle United, ordered his full back to swap places and proceeded to belt Birchenall on to the cinder track.
“And if you come back into this half again, son, you’ll get the full treatment,” McNamee bellowed as he leaned over his poor victim. Birchenall spent the rest of the game operating just in front of Chelsea’s back four.
Years later, McNamee claimed that “football has become softer, not tougher”, but whatever the changes that have occurred in the sport, Ferguson has embraced them and moved with the times. How, otherwise, can you explain the 22 major trophies he has won in 22 years at Old Trafford, not to mention the ten he won during his 8½ years at Aberdeen?
Another challenge reared its head in the summer when Luiz Felipe Scolari took over as manager at Chelsea. If some wondered why, after more than 30 years, Ferguson had not got bored of management, the clues were in his reaction to a preseason issue of the Racing Post that trumpeted the Brazilian’s abilities over his own.
“Every analyst in there was tipping Chelsea for the title,” Ferguson recalls. “One guy wrote: ‘The reason is Scolari is in town.’ He said Scolari will not be intimidated by me. He suggested that Wenger, Mourinho and Avram Grant couldn’t ‘handle me’. The paper mentions me as having ‘had a go’ at Chelsea by saying that a team [with players] over 30 can’t win the league, which is absolute rubbish. I never said that. What I did say was that a team over 30 doesn’t improve a lot. But Chelsea, given their performance last season, don’t have to improve a lot to win it.
“Then, the same writer argues that Scolari is a better manager than me. I am not so arrogant as to believe that is impossible. Scolari may be a better manager than I am. But how can a sensible writer say that about a guy who has never managed in England? If you look at Scolari’s CV, he has managed about 17 teams.”
Maybe the desire to be the best has given way, in part, to a wish to be loved, but the Glaswegian shipbuilder’s son in him may never admit it publicly. Ferguson grew up in a tenement in Govan and is from the same west Scotland working-class stock as Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Jock Stein. So what is it about that part of the world that produces such great managers?
“I think people in the west of Scotland, grow up in a different climate,” Ferguson says. Culturally? “Literally. It’s wet, damp, unforgiving. Have you ever stood on the harbour front in Fraserburgh [Aberdeenshire] on a February morning? Beautiful! Fraserburgh is cold, but it’s dry.
“When I worked as a toolmaker in the middle of winter,” Ferguson, who was a shop steward at the Remington Rand typewriter factory, adds, “I remember touching the steel first thing in the morning. It’s absolutely freezing. You can burn yourself it’s so bloody cold. And yet these people built the best ships in the world. You can overromanticise these things, but they do have a real part to play in forging a person’s character.”
Giving them what? “Determination. Then you think of the miners; men such as Stein and Shankly. I remember Stein saying something I think was fantastic. We were driving to Glasgow during the miners’ strike [in the mid1980s] and they were shipping coal in from Belgium, these scab drivers. Big Jock stopped them. He looked at them, and said: ‘I hope you’re proud of yourselves. You’re doing people out of a living.’ None of them said a word. Then he said to me: ‘This is an absolute bloody disgrace. You go down that pit shaft, a mile underground. You can’t see a thing. The guy next to you, you don’t know who he is. Yet he is the best friend you will ever have.’ ” Ferguson pauses for a moment. “All of these things congeal in your character. And they never leave you.”
Listening to Ferguson talk in this manner, you wonder how he can tolerate the behaviour of some of the modern-day footballers, but perhaps, in one sense, it is because the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Eric Cantona seem so far removed from life on the south banks of the Clyde that the United manager is drawn to them. It also helps to explain why he regrets failing to sign Paolo Di Canio, another foreigner with a petulant streak.
“Di Canio would have been capable of becoming a truly great player at Manchester United,” Ferguson says. “I mean, he was a great player. But when you have a player like Di Canio, who expresses himself as an individual, like [George] Best and Cantona did, and [Ryan] Giggs, [Wayne] Rooney, Ronaldo and [Dimitar] Berbatov do . . . we make heroes quickly here. Di Canio could have been in that category.”
If Ronaldo was a hero in the eyes of United supporters last season, his 42 goals helping the club to a seventeenth league title and third European Cup, he became a villain over the summer with his brazen flirting with Real Madrid. “That saga is over now,” Ferguson says. “It’s finished.” But while he can understand the Portugal forward’s reasons for having his head turned, he can’t resist taking a dig at the Spanish club and Sepp Blatter, who likened the player’s contractual situation at Old Trafford to slavery.
“I think Sepp Blatter is in danger . . . or has reached a point now, where he is being mocked within the game,” Ferguson says of the 72-year-old Fifa president. “Whether he’s getting too old, I don’t know. But things can happen to people in power. Look at some of the despots in Africa.” Surely you are not comparing Blatter to Robert Mugabe? “That would be ridiculous. All I’m saying is that, from a position of great power, he has uttered so many ridiculous statements that he is in danger of seriously damaging his credibility.
“So when he came out with that stuff it created a furore and rightly so, the year after the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery.” But were you not more disappointed by all that vaudeville from Real? “It was different for me because I knew it was coming,” Ferguson says. “So I wasn’t surprised.
“When we sold Gabriel Heinze to Real Madrid [the previous summer], we knew it was going to happen, because Ronaldo was very close to Heinze. I knew what they were doing. I don’t believe they were interested in Heinze – good player though he is. The endgame was to get Ronaldo.
“What made it really obscene was that Madrid, as General Franco’s club, had a history of being able to get whoever and whatever they wanted, before democracy came to Spain.”
If Ronaldo should follow anybody’s example, Ferguson would love it to be Cantona’s. He told the Portuguese as much during their summit meeting in Lisbon in July. Not Cantona’s kung fu kicking, but the connection the flamboyant Frenchman felt with United.
“British fans have a special appreciation for loyalty when it comes from a great foreign player,” Ferguson says.
“That’s the reason Eric Cantona is still so revered here, isn’t it; because he not only understood, but bonded to Manchester. He cherished the club and the company of his teammates.
“If there was ever a player in this world who was made for Manchester United, it was Cantona. I think he had been searching all his life for somebody who looked at him and made him feel that a place was his home. He had travelled around so many countries; there is a wee bit of the gypsy about some people. But when he came here, he knew: this is my place.
“Gary Neville told me, ‘Occasionally we’d have a night out and hide it from you. We’d all say, ‘Don’t tell anybody about where, or at what time, we are meeting.’ ’ Then at training Cantona would say, ‘Right! I’ll see all of you later! This evening! At nine! In such and such a place.’ They were all going, ‘Shut up! The boss is here!’
“The point was that he was excited to have nights out with the boys. Even though he wasn’t a big drinker, Cantona. A beer. A glass of wine. He just loved being part of that culture, which he’d never experienced in France. “[When Cantona shakes your hand and looks you in the eye] . . . it’s daunting. And yet, as different as they are, probably the most underrated virtue Ronaldo has, on the pitch, is his bravery.” Courage? “Absolutely. Courage in football, as in life, comes in many forms. But the courage to continue, no matter how many times he is going to be kicked, identifies Ronaldo. Very few players have that level of courage. Some believe the greatest courage in football is the courage to win the ball.
“The other kind of courage – and it’s a moral courage – is the courage to keep the ball. That’s what Ronaldo has. All the great players had it. Best had it, Charlton had it, Cantona. ‘I’ll take the kick. I’ll take the injury. But I will keep the ball. I’ll beat the bully.’ ”
One of the best was Sir Bobby Charlton, and it is on the subject of the former United captain that the discussion turns back to Moscow and, in turn, Peter Kenyon, the Chelsea chief executive. One of the defining moments of the night was the sight of Kenyon, a self-proclaimed lifelong United fan who defected to Chelsea in 2004, slipping a runners-up medal over the jacket of his designer suit while Charlton, when he was offered a winners’ medal, declined to wear it.
“Charlton was saying: look, this is not my night,” Ferguson says. “This is the players’ night. There would have been a lot of understanding if he had worn the medal because, 50 years on from the Busby Babes, he had every right. But he was thinking of the players and the football club. And that is Bobby Charlton.” Was Kenyon’s departure, and the knowledge of the inner workings of United that he took with him to Stamford Bridge, not a hammer blow, though? “No. Definitely not. Peter Kenyon? He wasn’t a loss,” Ferguson says. “The best thing that has happened recently has been [his replacement] David Gill.”
It is Gill who will be charged with the daunting task of finding Ferguson’s successor. Ferguson, who is 67 on December 31, has said that he will have retired as United manager come the end of next season, and while that prospect terrifies him, he is confident the handover will be a smooth one.
“There will be no problem,” he says. “The foundation is here. The morale is here. I am not responsible for everything. It’s a funny thing, though; the older I get, the more frightened I get of retiring. But there will come a time when I clear my desk and someone else will take over.” Quite important, that someone, isn’t it? “It is,” Ferguson says. “I hope and expect that they will be a formidable person. Because this job, believe me, is not easy.” Formidable – like you? “No,” he says. “This job can’t be done the same way twice. Which is a good thing.” Try telling that to United’s supporters.
Robert Chalmers © The Condé Nast Publications Ltd Adapted by James Ducker
the best manager in the last 50 years, as a person i think i'd run a country mile from his ego and persona.
Paul, Swindon, UK
Intriguing read and certainly the best and most comprehensive football article I have probably ever read. I enjoyed every page of his autobiography and this shows he ought to update it. Absolute LEGEND.
Shamir Amanullah, Kenilworth, Warwickshire
interesting interview. But a cheap and tricky comment about Real Madrid. Come on Fergie, do a favour to yourself and stop that ridiculous comments about Real Madrid. Some people may thing you are getting very old.....
Manolo, Madrid, Spain
To Fernando from Bogota, I guarantee that Sir Alex's knowledge of Spanish history is greater than yours. It is a widely accepted fact that, despite being a Galician, Franco became an ardent supported of Real Madrid. If it wasn't for Franco, Di Stefano would have been a Barcelona legend.
David Edward Nevins y Clenaghan, Madrid,
Great football manager, unpleasant, vain man, just ask his former horse racing buddies from Ireland
Ben Collins, Belfast,
We now know that Alex´s pastime is not Spanish history. His arguments are so childish and undocumented. Was Liverpool Thatcher´s team only because they were the best team during the 80´s?
Fernando, Bogotá , Colombia
Yep, the best. No other manager could routinely spend 20 million quid on footballers and still win the league.
Thomas Mann, Hove, UK
Legend.
Jim, Manchester,
Wow. Great article.
Larry, stratford,
No one can deny that real madrid was franco's club... who did he support? racing de ferrol?? come on... please take a look at the stats between 1939 and 1975... and please, do not talk about di stefano, and remember how he was "stolen" from barca...
joaquin, New York, USA
Very good article, but I'm not sure about that whole Ronaldo is courageous by keeping the ball. Would that mean Fabregas is a coward because he passes it so much?
Jim L, Tucson, US
Two ways to get the Spanish typing; mention that Lewis Hamilton is a half-decent racing driver and criticise the government-financed Real Madrid (debt? what debt?). Didn't Santiago Bernabeu fight alongside Franco? Didn't they steal Di Stefano from Barca? They have a dark past. Not so merengue.
Rub, Worthing, England
If Britain had supported the democratic governement in Spain in 1936, instead of losing time being in two minds about supporting the nazis in Germany or not, maybe Spain and Europe wouldn´t have had a dictator like Franco...
Britain was going to support Hitler., BARCELONA, SPAIN
Mr. Ferguson obviously seems to have a Real Madrid complex. How in good heavens can he compare the situation in Spain today with the dictatorship of General Franco and use it to attack Real Madrid? I really would expect some more tact from someone who calls himself 'Sir'.
Diego, Zurich, Switzerland
Mr Ferguson does not know what he is talking about. He should not bring back insults on a topic he does not know. So he is promoting violence.
Felipe, Madrid, España
I have no doubt about Ferguson's coaching talent, but in regard to Spanish History, or I would say just History, he is an ignorant, too much football and very few books to read, maybe is the age, old people some times just say nonsense, he just talked like a regular fan.
Pablo, Jaén, España
if God wanted to buy a football club Sir Alex would be manager!
john morrison, plymouth, england
Come on, british giving the spanish lessons about racism and things like that, and then some guy comes up with stupid remarks about Franco and no english journalists bothers about it... You should be more critic with yourselves
Pablo, London,
but any Spanish government is happy to ignore Real's enormous debts or any other transgressions; as long as they are winning they keep the falange interest away from politics
Phil Constable, Darlington,
Mr Ferguson:since the dictator Franco overthrew my country's Democracy (1939) until the arrival of Di Stefano to Real Madrid (1953),Real didn't win any title at all,while Barcelona got 6 and Atletico 4(called Atletico Aviation in honour of Franco's army).Di Stefano changed my club,not Franco.Respect
Ivan, Edinburgh, Scotland
Ferguson is Manchester United and Manchester United is the biggest football club in the world. I hope Ronaldo understands better his role in destiny and retires at Manchester United like an eternal red idol. If he plays a pivotal role in defending the champions league... then long live the king!
clive, reading, england
Entertaining. Strong in football matters, weak in history (General Franco? I think he died 30 something years ago). Do we blame Edward Heath or Harold Wilson for the behaviour of Man Utd in the players market?
Jo, Dublin,
Placing club loyalties to one side, there are some people in the footballing world that when they speak, you listen. Sir Alex Ferguson is one of them. Great article.
Lee, London, UK
I doubt that those who are complaining about Fergie referring to Real as 'General Franco's Club' no the history of their club. Fergie was playing football when Franco was in power. If he says it was General Franco' club, then l believe him.
Dominic, London, England
It would be someone with little to no knowledge of football that would doubt Fergusons talents. I hesitate to say genius but he is certainly among the best of all time.
Mike Farren, Manchester, England
I think there is only one manager that can have the same impact as Sir Alex and that is: Martin O'neill
He has the same philosophy and is a extremely intelligent manager that the players trust 200%
Tommy, London, UK
What is it with those who can only mock? £20million per player? how does that explain his 10 trophies in Aberdeen whilst challenging the hegemony of the "Old Firm". At the time in question Rangers and Celtic were amongst the richest clubs in the UK.
Kevin, Linlithgow, Scotland
"Madrid, as General Francos club"
What kind of remark is that? That´s utterly offending mostly coming from someone that says he´s not arrogant, I really find it funny in a sad way. Mister Ferguson go to school to learn a bit, mostly good manners. Just for the record, I am not a Real Madrid fan
Christine, Madrid, Spain
Yes Tom Mann, I remember the £40 million Ferguson spent on Schmeichel and Cantona, two of his defining singings in his success. Oh no wait, they cost a combined £2 million.Not to mention all the homwgrowns.its amazing to me how some people still cannot give credit where it is due.
Cian, London, UK
A brilliant interview, and all the more so because he doesn't give many, and opened up so honestly. Marvellous...
Andrea Segde, linz, austria
Alex Ferguson is a once in a life time treat to any football fan. He is a man with no parallels, it is exactly why I sympathize with the person who is succeeding him in the red throne. As a Manchester Utd fan it is a frightening prospect to think that a day will come when the Scottish Knight resign
Albin Xavier, Chennai, India
Great interview, great manager. We'll miss him when he retires... and I'm a Leeds fan.
PB, London, UK
Great manager obviously but isn't his constant carping about referees whenever United drop points tantamount to his very own description of bulying.
Robin Smith, Bedford, England
Just wish there was more of the interview, what a great mind.
khan, manchester,
Truly a man to be remembered in our time.
john Dough, Essex, England
Yes, clearly a genius, who else could routinely spend 20 million quid on players and still win titles?
Tom Mann, Hove, UK
No idea about what he is talking about. If he knows the Spanish football history, he should known that Barcelona and Atletico de Madrid, won much more league titles that Real Madrid.
Real Madrid has 9 European Championship, 3 times more that Man United !!!
BTW, We got also 31 liga Titles,
Juan Per , London, uk
Really, one of the most interesting articles i've read in months, no no let me correct that: in years!!
Sir Alex, a true amazing mind in a great game.
Rony Abou Samra, Adonis, Lebanon
Great article.........one of the most in-depth interviews I have heard from Fergie for a long time! Nice questions that were non too probing.
Christian, Manchester, England
Excellent insight into the a football genius! Tough, uncompromising at times, but also intelligent and street smart. And man-management skills par excellence to boot!There hasn't been another like him and it is unlikely there will ever be. What a record of achievement,,, simply the best!
Derwyn Williams, Figtree, Australia
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