Birthday boy Alex Ferguson continues to cast a lengthy shadow at Old Trafford

To say the Scot has been a hard act to follow is perhaps the greatest understatement in 21st century football

Fri, 31 Dec, 2021 - 06:00

Jon West

Alex Ferguson turns 80 today at a time when Manchester United currently occupy the slot for next season’s Europa Conference League. To say the Scot has been a hard act to follow is perhaps the greatest understatement in 21st century football.

Ralf Rangnick is the seventh man to pick the team since Fergie finally stepped away on May 19 2013; all have tried in vain to emulate a man who retired as a Premier League champion for an unprecedented 13th time.

Indeed, no manager in the history of football has won more major trophies than Alexander Chapman Ferguson, who was born at his grandmother’s Glasgow home on December 31, 1941.

Old Trafford literally lay in ruins that year, thanks to a stray Luftwaffe bomb, and it was another Scot, Matt Busby, who became a legend by turning United into the champions of Europe as well as England.

Ferguson took over at Old Trafford on November 6 1986 with Busby’s achievements firmly in the past; Liverpool were dominant and United only occasional cup competitors of note. They had even spent a single season in the Second Division in 1974-75.

It took Ferguson almost four years to bring another trophy to United, the 1990 FA Cup, by which time many fans had already lost faith, but that success proved to be the springboard for two decades of glory in which United won 38 trophies, including two Champions League titles.

That Ferguson not only emulated Busby but went on to surpass his fellow countryman’s achievements offers hope to all United fans who watched them get outplayed by Norwich and then Newcastle this Yuletide...

Two players from Ferguson’s final season are still at the club — goalkeeper David de Gea and defender Phil Jones, although the latter has not featured in almost two years. And this season has also seen the return of a man who was synonymous with success in Ferguson’s second decade at the top — Cristiano Ronaldo. And while the Portuguese is also finding out how difficult it is to replicate previous success, CR7 was quick to pay tribute to his former manager.

“I always say that for me he’s like a father for me in football,” he told United’s official website. “Probably he doesn’t remember, but I will say it because it’s a beautiful story.

“One day, my father was in hospital, and I was so emotional, very low. And I spoke with him and he said: ‘Cristiano, go there for two or three days.’ We had difficult games and I was a key player in that moment.

“He said: ‘It will be tough because we have difficult games, but I understand your situation and I’ll leave you out and you can go and see your father.’ For me, these are the most important things — apart from winning Champions Leagues, to win the Premier League, to win cups and stuff.”

There may never have been a more one-eyed obsessive than Ferguson, whose tongue-lashing or errant players, rival managers and hapless officials became a staple for the media and a source of income for the Football Association’s disciplinary department.

But Ronaldo’s heart-warming tale will come as no surprise to those who also know him as a family man, devoted to wife Cathy and sons Mark, Jason, and Darren. The latter followed him into management and is currently in his fourth spell in charge of Peterborough.

Their father suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2018 and viewers of ‘Never Give in’, the documentary about his life which was released earlier this year and directed by Jason touched on the lengthy rehabilitation process. “I hope there’s nothing wrong with my memory,” Jason recalled his father, head in hands, as saying. “There better be nothing wrong with my memory.”

Of course, that huge bank of shared experiences does not belong solely to those of a red Mancunian persuasion. Ferguson played for Queens Park, St Johnstone, Dunfermline, Rangers, Falkirk, and Ayr before embarking on a managerial career that saw him take charge of the Scottish national team for the 1986 World Cup finals.

It was at Aberdeen where he made his name as a boss — St Mirren infamously sacked him in 1978 — and it was there that he honed a furious siege mentality that was to bring three league titles, five domestic cups and the European Cup Winners’ Cup to Pittodrie by the time United decided it was time to jettison Ron Atkinson. A bronze statue of Ferguson, designed by Scottish sculptor Philip Jackson, has been outside Old Trafford since 2012 and Aberdeen will unveil one of their own in the next few months.

It will show Fergie arms aloft celebrating sealing the Scottish title in 1980, which was the first time a team other than Celtic and Rangers had won the league in 15 years. Ferguson has already been presented with a miniature version.

Thousands of football fans across the globe will be raising a glass tonight to the health of their favourite manager, now in his ninth decade.