Alexander Chapman Ferguson

A look down memory lane

The name of Alex Ferguson is synonymous with Manchester United. This past Monday, he completed two decades at the helm of Manchester United as a manager. He was appointed manager of Manchester United after his impressive stint as manager of Scottish club Aberdeen, whom he had guided to their first ever Scottish League win. It was the first time in fifteen years that the Scottish league had not been won by either Celtic or Rangers. Ferguson also led Aberdeen to European success by winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup, by defeating Real Madrid in the finals. They beat the likes of Bayern Munich on their way to the finals.
On November 6 1986 Ferguson had replaced Ron Atkinson as the manager of Manchester United, who was sacked by the club on the back of a streak of poor performances. He managed to finish eleventh out of the 22 clubs of the Championship, in his first season in-charge.
The following season he made some big name signings, Viv Anderson, Brain McClaire and Steve Bruce. These signing surely improved the team performance as they went on to finish in second place nine points behind the champions Liverpool. This was a great improvement over their previous season. But the following season was one of the lows of his career. United were expected to do well when Mark Hughes had returned to the club, but it wasn’t to be. By finishing eleventh in the league and losing to Nottingham Forest in the quarter final of the FA Cup, Ferguson’s managerial stint seemed over, with fans unfurling banners in the scoreboard end that said “Three years of excuses; ta-ra Fergie” on his third year anniversary at the club.
The first four years between 1986-90 at Old Trafford weren’t the most memorable ones of his career, with no major titles coming their way. He described them as “the darkest period he had ever suffered in the game”
In January 1990 Manchester United were drawn away to Nottingham forest in the FA Cup, one of the most feared teams in England. Ferguson was expected to lose the match and consequently his job but it wasn’t to be so. United defeated Forest 1-0 and eventually won the Cup. This Cup win could be termed as a turning point in Ferguson’s Career. The Cup was thus the first major achievement for Ferguson with Manchester United. However they had finished a lowly 13th position in the league.
The next year United had secured a place in the European Cup Winners’ Cup on the virtue of their FA Cup victory the previous season. Ferguson managed to take united all the way to the final to set up a clash with the Spanish Champions Barcelona, whom they beat in the finals. After this victory, Ferguson announced that the following season United would be champions of England. Considering that they hadn’t won a league title since 1967 it was a brave statement. That very season he managed to take United to the Finals of the league Cup but unfortunately lost to Sheffield Wednesday in the finals.
Though they won the League Cup in the 91-92 season, it was overall a disastrous season.
It is hard to believe that Ferguson managed to keep his job for more than five seasons without winning the Championship title. It was only in the 92-93 season that United won their first league title under Ferguson. It was the introduction of the talismanic French striker Eric Cantona, whom Ferguson bought from Leeds United that changed Manchester United’s fortunes forever. Cantona with Mark Hughes took the club to the position it always aimed at and that is the top. Thus ended United’s 26 year league title drought. They, in the process became the first ever Premiership winner after the league’s restructuring. Ferguson was voted the as the Manager of the Year.
The next season began with the signing of Roy Keane from Nottingham Forest.
United successfully defended their title by retaining the league title. Ferguson also managed to guide United to the League Cup final where they eventually lost to Aston Villa. But what made the season a memorable one, was the FA Cup victory over Chelsea with an impressive 4-0 win in the finals. United became only the sixth team in the history of English football to have achieved the feat of winning the League Championship and the FA Cup double.

In the 1994-1995 season, United did not manage to win a single trophy but there was one man whom Ferguson bought from Newcastle United, Andy Cole. He paid a record fee to sign Cole. The reasons for the trophy-less season were many injuries and suspensions to key players, the most famous one being the suspension of Eric Cantona for assaulting a Crystal Palace supporter. He was banned for four months, putting Ferguson’s plans for the season in a disarray. Though the season went down in the record books as a trophy-less one for United, it wasn’t all that bad. They lost the League Championship on the last day of the season and they managed to reach the finals of the FA Cup.

The next season could be termed as a milestone year in the Club’s history. Though it did not begin all that well, players like Paul Ince and Mark Hughes moved away from Old Trafford. Ferguson was criticised for selling off his key players. Ferguson himself was pretty confident that he had able replacements for the outgoing players in the form of Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and David Beckham. His critics weren’t impressed by his move of selling the big name players and replacing them with little known ones. The season did not begin the way Ferguson had hoped it will. They lost their first league match to Aston Villa. But there was no looking back from there as Ferguson’s boys put up a streak of performances that made them the champions of England that season. The icing on the cake being the winning of the title on the last day of the season with a win away at Middlesbrough. They also won the FA Cup that year by beating Liverpool in the finals.

The 96-97 season saw United winning their fourth Premiership title in five years.
That was all the success Ferguson had that season. United were knocked out of the FA Cup in the fourth round by Wimbledon. They managed to reach the semi finals of the Champions League, but the low point of their Champions League campaign was when they lost their 40 year unbeaten home record in Europe to Turkish Club Fenerbahce.
The season also marked the end of Eric Cantona’s Career, arguably United’s best player.

The neat season, Ferguson made an inclusion to the team in Teddy Sherigham. The season again went trophy-less. They finished second behind Arsenal in the premiership and made it to the quarter finals of the Champions League.

Come the next season and Ferguson was determined to win at-least one trophy. In his bid to do so he bought Jaap Stam and Dwight Yorke from Parma and Aston Villa respectively. This season turned out to be the best one in the club’s rich history. They went on to win all three major tournaments they played in, the Premiership title, FA Cup and the Champions League. They beat Juventus in the semis and Bayern Munich in the finals to win the Champions League. They beat Arsenal in the semis and Newcastle in the finals to claim their hold on the FA Cup. They won the league by just one point. In 1999, Alex Ferguson received a knighthood in recognition of his services to the game.

The following season, United wrapped up the Premiership very comfortably. They won by a margin of 18 points to second placed Arsenal. United dominated the whole season. As the season was coming to a close, Sir Alex Ferguson the signed Dutch striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy. But Nistelrooy failed the medical test. While working on regaining his lost fitness, he suffered a knee injury which kept him out for a year.

The 2000 -2001 season saw Ferguson go out and buy Fabien Barthez, a French goalkeeper. In the process of signing him Barthez became the most expensive keeper signed by a British club. The highlight of this season was the returning to form of Teddy Sheringham. He won a couple of player of the year awards for his goal scoring exploits. They won the Premiership title, making it a hat-trick of titles. During this season Sir Alex acquired Argentinian attacking midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron. This transfer deal turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes Ferguson had made in the transfer market. Veron was eventually sold off to rivals Chelsea.
Ferguson was made an Inaugural Inductee of the English Football Hall Of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his impact on the English game as a manager.
The 2001-02 season went without a single trophy for United. What made it worse, was the sale of Jaap Stam to Lazio at the start of the season. It was a decision that stunned the fans. The signing of the 36 year old Laurent Blanc, the French Defender as a replacement for Stam raised quite a few eyebrows. The season was dramatic, at one point of time in the season, United were languishing in ninth position 11 points behind the leaders Liverpool but a turn around took place when United put together a string of performances that took them to the top of the table. United could not keep up the same intensity for long and ended up finishing third at the end of the season. This was the lowest the club had finished since 1990-91. In the Champions League, they were knocked out in the semi finals by old foes Bayern Munich. United’s run in the league cup and the FA Cup did not last long. Ferguson had planned to retire at the end of this season but decided against it and admitted that he would like to stay on for another three years.
Before the 2002-03 season could get under way, Ferguson had managed to sign Leeds defender Rio Ferdinand for a record fee. United finally got hold of the Premiership title after a season that saw a mixture of high and lows in the league table. Around March they were 8 points behind leaders Arsenal but just 2 months before the end of the season, the supporters saw a resurgent team that made good the deficit of points and went on to win the title.
2003-04 was a disappointing season where United finished third in the Premiership and lost to eventual Champions Porto FC in the Knock out stage. In the League cup too, Ferguson could not manage to take United past the early stages of the tournament. The new signings were unable to create any magic for the team as they struggled to even earn a first team start. 19 year old Cristiano Ronaldo was also signed from Sporting Lisbon.
In the next season, as Chelsea’s financial support grew stronger by the day, the on-field performance also started getting better under new manager Jose Mourinho. With big name signings, Chelsea had no problems in wrapping up their first title in almost 50 years. United too made their fair share of signings in youngster Wayne Rooney and Argentinian defender Gabriel Hienze. United could not manage to win even a single trophy that season. Injuries to key players also hampered their chances to win anything. They made it to the FA Cup finals but lost to Arsenal on penalties after completely dominating the match.
The next season was a complete disaster, not because the club was taken over by American business tycoon Malcolm Glazer but because United failed to make it past the group stages in the Champions League. Their performance in these group stages was so poor that they even failed to make it into the UEFA Cup qualifications. This season also saw Roy Keane leaving, after a long and successful stint at the club. They managed to finish second behind Chelsea. The only trophy that United won that season was the League Cup. They won by defeating Wigan Athletic in the finals.
The 2006-07 season started out as a very special one for Ferguson. This was his 20th season in charge. He made some addition to the previous year’s squad that failed to create magic on the field. He went out and bought Micheal Carrick from Tottenham Hotspurs and also got in a young goalkeeper from West Brom, Tomasz Kuszak. He sold off Ruud Van Nistelrooy to Real Madrid after a bitter dispute with him throughout the second half of the previous season. They have managed to start the season on a bright note and are leading the Premiership table with 28 points, three points ahead of second placed Chelsea. There is a strong belief in the United camp that Ferguson will manage to wrap the Premiership title in favour of them. There aren’t many who are betting against him.
There might not be too many managers who could emulate Sir Alex Ferguson in a football field.