Knight’s tale: smart Alex reveals a determined rise to top

WHAT’S the first question you ask a man who has won everything?

The answer is obvious: for once and for all, is it Alec or Alex Ferguson?

The manager of Manchester United smiles and admits that, yes, he was named Alexander by his parents. But in Scotland it’s always been Alec and south of Hadrian’s Wall, it’s always been Alex. He is also, of course, a knight of the realm but, with a dismissive wave, he assures you he’s not hung up about being addressed as ‘Sir’.

So, in a spirit of Celtic solidarity, Alec it was yesterday, as one of the most famous figures in football arrived to present the 2007 Irish Examiner Junior Sports Stars Awards at a gala lunch in the splendid Round Room in Dublin’s Mansion House.

In affable and generous form — why wouldn’t he be, says you, with United still in the hunt for the league, cup and Champions’ League — Ferguson looked out on a sea of young faces and cast his mind back to when he was growing up in Govan and had his own dreams of making it as a footballer. Concerned about his lad’s future well-being, his father encouraged him to do an apprenticeship as a toolmaker. That was when he was 16 and, for a couple of years, Ferguson combined his work in Clyde shipyards with his career with then amateur Queen’s Park.

“I got caught between two stools, whether I should concentrate on toolmaking or football,” he recalled. “I found it hard to decide. Then when I was 19 or 20, I got involved in trade unionism and, for a while I thought my future was in that.”

Although a prolific scorer for Queen’s Park, Ferguson was not always flavour of the month at the club and considered emigrating to Canada.

“It wasn’t always easy,” he said of those early years in football. “There was a period when I was disillusioned and who knows, if I’d gone to Canada, would you have ever heard of me? But fate can play a part.”

Ferguson was referring to the occasion when he was selected to play for Queen’s Park because their favoured striker happened to be unfit.

“I got a break and I scored a hat-trick against Rangers and it changed my life,” he recalled. “My career took off.”

And all these years later — having gone on to play for his boyhood idols Rangers and managed Aberdeen and Scotland along the way — that career trajectory is still firmly upward at the club with which he has become synonymous — Manchester United. But like anyone who has ever played the game, Ferguson, even now, will readily admit that being the gaffer is no substitute for being on the pitch.

“Absolutely no way. Playing is a pleasure. Management is a sacrifice, it’s never a normal life. Your family never see you. You’re travelling across the country all hours of the night. It can be a soul-destroying job. And of course your responsibilities are huge. As a player, yes, you can think of your team mates, you can think about winning. But as manager there are so many other facets of your job: the commercial part, the people working for you, the supporters, the press — which is a very difficult area nowadays — so it’s a huge job. Playing is a luxury you relish.”

And therefore all the more reason, he told an audience hanging on his every word, that young sports people should endeavour to make the most of their talents. “Look after yourselves,” he counselled, “and you can have a long career — much longer than players of my generation.”

And what makes it all worthwhile as a manager? Surprisingly, his answer didn’t refer to bringing the league trophy back to Old Trafford after 26 years or winning Europe’s top prize in sensational fashion in Barcelona. Instead, he simply answered: “The job satisfaction of knowing you have developed young players. To see that and nurture it.”

With satisfaction, he recalled the team that became known as Fergie’s Fledglings.

“Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, the two Nevilles, Nicky Butt — it was absolutely fantastic to see them develop as a group,” he enthused. So highly were they rated as a youth side at Old Trafford that even the senior team were quaking in their boots.

“I once organised a practice game between the youth team and the first team,” he revealed with a smile, “and the first team actually had a team talk before they played them — that’s a fact! They were actually sh***ing themselves. The young lads were so good.”

In the context of a day honouring young stars, it was appropriate that giving youth a chance was a recurring theme of Ferguson’s comments.

“When you give young kids encouragement and opportunity, they can surprise you,” he observed. To which, one was tempted to rejoin: “Aye, just ask Alan Hansen”.

Talks of Rooney and Ronaldo — two young players whose progress has especially warmed Ferguson’s heart — led neatly into an easy question for the boss of a club which has seen more than its fair share of extravagant talents. Given a choice, who would Alex Ferguson pick between George Best and Ronaldo?

“When I saw this question I was going to get back on the plane,” he laughed. “It’s an impossible one. I think Ronaldo can score more goals in the league than George Best this year — and that’s a measure of how good he is. An interesting thing about George Best — a lot of critics said he didn’t fulfil his potential. Yes, he left Manchester United at 27 but he played 480 games and scored 189 goals. And George used to play with all sorts of injuries — ankle, knee, all sorts. He was so brave, courageous. And Cristiano is the same. They’re like all the great players, the greatest ever, Pele, Maradona, they played all the time. And the courage to do that is the most important thing.”

For the young stars in the audience, heady talk of such legends must have transformed the Round Room into their own Theatre of Dreams. And Ferguson left them with words to fire their own ambitions.

“I’ll watch out for you in the future and when I see your names, I’ll be able to say — I was there at the start.”