Another Hogmanay approaches and, with it, comes another birthday for Britain's most successful manager, Sir Alex Ferguson.
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Sir Alex: Staying on
(StuForster/Allsport) |
Born on December 31, 1941, he is 60 on Monday, but no less ambitious than before to bring further prestige to Old Trafford.
Can United come from behind, in what is the last season of his celebrated stewardship, to win yet another Premiership title? Might he take his final bow at Hampden, where he set out as a senior player in the late 1950s, with United winning the Champions League there in May?
While Sir Alex ponders these questions, Brian Scott looks back through the decades to chart what he has achieved to date in an astonishing career. His story begins when he first kicked a ball with Govan Rovers. Who knows how it might end with, arguably, the greatest club in the world.
1941-51
Alex Ferguson remains immensely proud of having grown up among the shipyards of Govan. Yet, if he could have chosen the date in 1941 on which he was born in nearby Drumoyne, it probably wouldn't have been December 31.
Too close to Christmas, wasn't it? One set of presents tended to cover the two celebrations. That said, so long as young Alex had a ball to kick, he seemed to have been content enough.
The dream of being a footballer consumed him from his earliest years at primary school, when he played with a team known as Govan Rovers who were recruited from the block of tenements in which he lived.
Ferguson was only seven when he joined them, without a pair of boots to call his own. Thanks be to a neighbour who gave him a pair of hand-me-downs.
It would have been around then he became transfixed by the sight of so many men, clad in blue scarves, heading for Ibrox on a Saturday afternoon. Thus a passion for Rangers became implanted in him.
What a fine thing it would be if he could wear their famous jersey one day. The thought sustained him as he continued playing with the Life Boys and, subsequently, Harmony Row Boys' Club.
School work wasn't a priority, although his teachers could detect a brightness in him, and he had the misfortune to be held back a year because of illness. But, imbued with a rare determination and an ability to stick up for himself, here was a boy on his way to success.
1951-61
This was the period in which the Govan High School pupil and inside-forward graduated to playing for St Johnstone, with district and international honours being gathered on the way.
His selection for the Glasgow Schools XI against Edinburgh in 1956-57 found him directly opposed to a little lad who was to grow both in stature and reputation. His name? John Greig.
Ferguson, attached to Drumchapel Amateurs, duly elected to join Queen's Park. He was 16 at the time and just beginning his apprenticeship as a toolmaker on Clydeside.
He recalls in his autobiography, Managing My Life, making his first- team debut against Stranraer and being in direct opposition to an uncompromising character called McKnight.
A Hampden official upbraided him at half-time for not being combative enough. 'But their left-back bit me,' Alex protested. 'Well, bite him back,' he was instructed.
Ferguson, after a couple of years with Queen's, moved on to St Johnstone - and wished he hadn't. He was still an amateur and training nights saw him return to Govan late at night. But, with his father having undergone a serious operation, he turned professional so that he might help eke out the family income.
1961-71
It was ever upwards for Ferguson during most of this decade, with his dream of joining Rangers finally being realised, although the four seasons he spent at Muirton Park weren't the happiest.
He would remember them best, probably, for a match at Ibrox in 1963; one in which, after being plucked from the reserve team, he became only the second player ever to score a hat- trick against Rangers on their own patch, Alan Gilzean having grabbed four for Dundee in their 5- 1 Ibrox win in November 1961.
St Johnstone previously had wanted to sell Ferguson to Raith Rovers but he refused to budge. Not to be turned down, though, was the chance to join Dunfermline on a full- time contract in 1964.
Jock Stein had implanted ambition in them before going to Hibs. The fact they had begun to acquire a taste for Europe under Stein' s successor, Willie Cunningham, appealed to Ferguson.
He really came to prominence with them, scoring 45 goals in 51 matches one season. Bigger clubs began to take notice. So, too, did Scotland with whom he went on a world tour in 1967.
Ferguson, who had married Cathy Holding the previous year, wasn't long back from his travels when he got the invitation over which he had fantasised for so long. Would he like to join Rangers?
His first season with them yielded 23 goals, making him their top scorer. But, with Colin Stein having been signed from Hibs, his second proved woeful; culminating, as it did, in the Scottish Cup Final against Celtic in 1969.
He was detailed to mark Billy McNeill at set-pieces when, really, the onus should have been accepted by a taller man. What happened? McNeill scored the first of Celtic's four goals after only a couple of minutes.
That signalled the end of Ferguson's stay at Ibrox, one in which he had detected a bias against him because his wife was a Catholic.
He seemed poised to join Nottingham Forest before the year was out, only to be lured to Falkirk, instead.
1971-81
Ferguson's thoughts were inclining towards coaching by the time of his arrival at Brockville. He had passed all the exams at Largs where, by the way, he first got to know a man who was to become a great rival in management, Jim McLean.
But he gave sterling service to Falkirk, helping them achieve promotion in 1970 and staying for a further three years before joining Ayr United for his last season as a player.
It was then that destiny truly began to beckon, with East Stirling offering him his first job in management. He made sufficient impression with them, in only a matter of months, that St Mirren offered him a step up.
They were languishing in the old First Division at the time and Ferguson, loud-hailer in hand, drove around Paisley trying to drum up support for them. His energy, and expertise, soon permeated the club.
St Mirren were promoted as champions in 1977 and, while a series of personality clashes ended with him being sacked after their first season in the Premier Division, Aberdeen saw him as the man to replace Billy McNeill.
It was the making of Aberdeen, and Ferguson, with their first notable achievement under his stewardship being recorded in 1980 when they won the Championship. More, much more, was to follow, after the Dons just missed out on the title the next year.
1981-91
Not for nothing did Ferguson become known as the hair-drier. Any players who crossed him were liable to be scalded at close quarters as he ripped into them.
Then again, in the dressing room at half-time, they might have to dodge the odd tea cup as it came flying in their direction.
Fergie, with the adjectival Furious helping complete many a headline, ruled his domain by fear. He demanded respect, as well as success, and ended up with both in great measure.
He wasn't without luck, of course, in inheriting players such as Willie Miller, Alex McLeish, Stuart Kennedy and Gordon Strachan. But, with the addition of his own signings, he made Aberdeen the team to beat.
Aberdeen, in 1981, made space for the Drybrough Cup and, the following year, the much more coveted Scottish Cup which they were to retain in each of the succeeding two seasons.
It was the sheer force of Ferguson's personality which under-pinned such achievements, with the greatest of all to come in 1983 when Aberdeen won the European Cup Winners' Cup by beating Real Madrid in Gothenburg.
Pittodrie fans hailed the man as a marvel and he proceeded to repay their faith in him still more the next season as Aberdeen won the European Super Cup and, for the second time, the Premier Division title.
The Dons successfully defended the latter in the season to come and, in 1985-86, when he was doubling as interim international manager, they won both the Scottish League Cup and Scottish Cup. This couldn't go on, surely.
It didn't, not least for the reason that Manchester United lured Ferguson away to Old Trafford before the year was out and charged him with restoring what had once been their glory.
His first few years were fraught, as he strove to rebuild the club from its very base. Critics began to gang up on him. It looked as if he might get the sack; until, that is, United won the FA Cup in 1990.
Then, and only then, did fans begin to get a true sense of his worth as manager although, even after the European Cup Winners' Cup had been lifted in 1991, they couldn't have dreamt of what was in the offing.
1991-2001
A deep breath is required by anyone prepared to read out the list of honours which Manchester United have amassed since the man who was to become Sir Alex Ferguson re-introduced them to silverware in 1990.
Seven Premier League championships, three more FA Cups, a League Cup, four Charity Shields and, of course, the Champions League which they won in such exciting circumstances against Bayern Munich in 1999.
Sir Alex has so much to celebrate as his 60th birthday approaches. British football, despite having produced Busby, Shankly, Stein, Paisley and Clough, has known no greater manager than United's gift from Govan.
He admitted to Soccernet that he had been inspired by the example of sundry famous Scots, in industry, politics and commerce, who had gone to England before him and prospered.
It is a sign of his inner-strength and self-belief that, in another field entirely, he has prevailed after so many were ready to denounce him as a failure. Whoever is his replacement, when he retires at the end of the season, will have some job trying to sustain his success.
Sir Alex has pulled several master- strokes at Manchester United, among them the £1.2million signing from Leeds of Eric Cantona, who gave them the last bit of guile they required to win the first of their titles.
It was a bold and inspired move by him, subsequently, to invest the faith he did in young players like David Beckham and Paul Scholes as United continued to make a near-monopoly of the championship.
Has he been lucky? But, of course. Somebody, evidently, was looking over him and them when United won the greatest prize of all, the Champions League, in extra time in Barcelona. It goes without saying he has made mistakes, too.
Sir Alex probably is slightly more mellow than in his old Aberdeen days, albeit not to the degree that he countenances criticism any more readily than he did at Pittodrie.
Yet those in his charge daren't show him disrespect. He is the most conspicuous presence at, arguably, the most powerful club in the world, and a match for any schemers who may have tried to unseat him.
His is a startling story of attainment, with the last chapter possibly still to be written. Who knows, United could yet win the championship this season, and the Champions League at Hampden where his senior playing career began. Nearby Govan would hang out the bunting in that event.
