Fergie driven once again
As Sir Alex Ferguson sat down the other day to discuss the onset of another demanding season, his 18th as manager of Manchester United, it was with the enthusiasm of one who was starting over.
Just because he has seen it all before, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t like to see it all again.
His club, more than any other of the game’s behemoths, is driven by family values. As Chelsea lay the foundations of a blue-chip challenge, and Arsenal go once again with their Gallic flair, United continue to come up with their own players in the knowledge that they will be young, free and singularly satisfying.
“When young players come into the team, you get excited,” says Ferguson. “You get a bit like the fans.”
On the evidence of this brief encounter at the club’s Carrington training ground, it doesn’t sound like the same Ferguson who, less than two short years ago, was preparing to hang up his hairdryer. It sounds, instead, like a man invigorated by last season’s title triumph, motivated to repeat it and, in the words of another iron leader whose name is scrawled across the history books, willing to go on and on and on.
“I have no plans to retire, no plans to retire at all. I could go on for another few years yet, if they want me. I feel great. There’s nothing in me to suggest that my decision to stay was the wrong one. It was, without question, the correct decision. I have felt really good since I made it. I’m quite fit anyway.”
Not so fit, mind you, as those he has just been out working with at the club’s multi-million pound complex, a secluded set-up just a few miles west of the city, where United’s identity is forged. It is where Ferguson expects to produce more in the same mould as Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and the Neville brothers, all of his own making, a fulfilling alternative to chequebook management.
It wouldn’t do, however, to present United as a model of financial prudence. Two summers ago they spent £28.1m on Juan Sebastian Veron, who has since moved to Chelsea for half that fee. Last year they invested £29.1m in Rio Ferdinand. Only £11m has been outlayed this summer, but the sale of Beckham and Veron, together with the club’s failed bid for Ronaldinho, suggests that the spending is far from over.
Ferguson, though, insists that, while rivals such as Real Madrid splash out to the exclusion of all else, United are not so one-dimensional. The team which beat Arsenal in Sunday’s Community Shield match at the Millennium Stadium was heavily reliant on home produce.
“We try to buy players who will make a difference, but we also look for the ones coming through. It’s what makes Manchester United different from the rest. We have a great rapport with the fans through our young players. We probably have the best young players in the country at 16 and 17.”
A Scot, of all things, is among those knocking on the first-team door.
Darren Fletcher, the 19-year-old midfielder from Dalkeith, who made such a fine debut against Basel in March, impressed Ferguson during the club’s pre-season tour of the United States.
A tall, lean figure with a cute touch, he may not be ready for regular action, but his craft is valued after the departures of Veron and Beckham.
“Manchester United players have to be passers of the ball,” says Ferguson. “That’s the way we play, no matter what the formation is. He’s a passer all right, but he can beat a man too. He also has a change of pace, and a good temperament. He’s got a chance.”
Although defender John O’Shea’s emergence last season was the first of its kind in several years, United have a history of DIY that stretches back not just to Ferguson’s early days, but to the team’s reconstruction under Sir Matt Busby. There is a lot for the younger lads to live up to.
“I don’t think the success level, or the expectation, was as big in the past as it is now. If a player comes in now, he has to carry the expectation of winning. There is definitely a far more critical analysis of the young players here than there used to be. People want to know if they are ready for the team. We have players who get to the very top here.”
They need nurturing, though. While Roy Keane, Gary Neville, Giggs, Butt and Scholes are still young (Keane is the oldest at 32), there is a generation gap between them and the new boys earmarked as replacements. Kieran Richardson, one of the club’s new prodigies, is even younger than Fletcher.
“That’s one of the reasons we signed Kleberson and [Eric] Djemba Djemba,” says the manager, whose latest recruits are 24 and 22 respectively.
Kleberson, who is expected to win his appeal for a work permit , has rather more in his favour than a convenient date of birth.
While Djemba Djemba is the combative Cameroonian thought to be a potential replacement for Keane, his fellow signing is a more creative talent in the Veron mould. “He won the World Cup for Brazil,” says Ferguson. “I am absolutely certain about that. He made the difference.”
United’s only other signings since the end of last season are David Bellion, the winger from Sunderland, and American goalkeeper Tim Howard, who was impressive enough on the pre-season tour to prompt suggestions that he will be United’s first choice ahead of Fabien Barthez and Roy Carroll. “I think the boy’s got a lot, I really do,” says the manager.
If Ferguson signs anyone before the Champions League deadline on August 31, it will be a striker, a defender, or both. West Ham United’s Jermain Defoe is the favourite to complement Ruud Van Nistelrooy in attack, while Hatem Trabelsi of Ajax could bolster a back line that has been reduced to just four recognised defenders. Laurent Blanc and David May have left the club, while Wes Brown’s injury has ruled him out until Christmas.
It contrasts with the embarrassment of riches at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea have the Premiership’s biggest squad, and potentially its best one. “Ourselves and Arsenal have the experience, but you just wonder how far Chelsea are going to go. They could easily have another five players before the start of the season. They could go and buy Zidane and Figo tomorrow.”
Not that it will be any surprise if the title is contested once more by the two teams who confronted each other on Sunday. Between them, Arsenal and Manchester United have appeared in all but two of these curtain-raising friendlies, which pit the champions against the FA Cup winners.
They have monopolised the last eight Premiership titles, although United have claimed six of those.
Last season’s dramatic comeback has inspired Ferguson to approach this one with renewed vigour. His team’s demoralising capitulation the season before may well have been the result of complacency after two consecutive campaigns in which the title came easy. Now, after demolishing Arsenal’s eight-point lead, as well as Arsene Wenger’s prediction of a flawless record, the rivalry is alive and kicking, the passion inflamed.
“Mistakes were made the season before last, individual errors, a relaxation in some people’s minds. A lot of players had signed new contracts. They thought that, because I was supposed to be going, they would have an easy life. There was something missing. But we got it back last season. We showed all the great attributes we had shown over the previous decade. When the chips were down, we produced.”
A satellite television channel broadcast a “documentary” the other night in which the respective qualities of Ferguson and Wenger were compared and contrasted. Cut-outs of the two managers, stuck on the end of a stick like Punch and Judy, were permitted to whack each other over the head for every point scored.
There was only ever going to be one winner, and it wasn’t Wenger.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
