the_bald_genius
7 years ago
This manager is everybody's rival because his team stays competitive for a very longgg time.
epl notable rival:
- 1997-2004 vs wenger
- 2004-2008 vs mourinho
- 2010-2013 vs city and mancini
champions league notable rivalry matches:
- 2x finalist vs pep guardiola and messi
- vs mourinho, ronaldo and madrid 2012-2013 last 16
Sir Alex Ferguson ( Retired ), age 76;
Sir Alex, Mr. Premier League, Hair-Dryer ...
“If I were running a company, I would always want to listen to the thoughts of its most talented youngsters, because they are the people most in touch with the realities of today and the prospects for tomorrow.”
“There’s a reason that God gave us two ears, two eyes, and one mouth. It’s so you can listen and watch twice as much as you talk. Best of all, listening costs you nothing.”
“Very often our victories were squeaked out in the last few minutes after we had drained the life from our opponents. Games – like life – are all about waiting for chances and then pouncing on them.”
“I’ve never played for a draw in my life.”
“I’m privileged to have followed Sir Matt because all you have to do is to try and maintain the standards that he set so many years ago.”
Born in December 31st 1941, Alex preferred to kick a football with his younger brother than doing homework, his father Alexander senior was an amateur football player that quit playing so that he could support his family but that enjoyed playing with his boys in the working class neighborhood in the city of Glasgow.
With the guidance of his father he became a promising talent and played as a forward, he started in the local Queen's Park F.C. in Glasgow.
He then moved to St Johnstone and later on to Dunfermline Athletic where he scored 66 goals in 89 games.
That was a good showing and he moved to the club he cheered for as a child, Glasgow Rangers for £65 000 which was the Scottish record of the time, he played in 41 games and scored 25 goals:
He married in 1966 in Glasgow and is together with his wife Cathy Ferguson. Together they have 3 sons and in recent years his wife is bossing around their house where she is totally fed up with all the silverware that Ferguson moved all of his football related stuff out of their home.
"You’ll not find a thing about my career in the house, Cathy is fed up with the whole thing. She’s unbelievable. I can’t even take a football book home."
Their marriage is considered in whole Britain as one of the best to come out from the world of sports and celebrities as they have been together for all this time.
"She was pretty, had a lovely walk and a nice bum, and I made it my business to find out that she was Cathy Holding from Toryglen, near Hampden."
He was very willing to start coaching ever since his time with the Rangers ended but he did continue playing for other clubs before retiring as a player and starting his coaching job, which was first at East Stirlingshire in 1974 where he worked as a part time job for £40 a week as a 32 year old.
After a few months he got an offer from St. Mirren, a club that had a higher reputation and despite of Ferguson's unwillingness to join them as they were somewhat rivals to East Stirlingshire he took the job and it was there where his great journey started.
St.Mirren was in the Scottish Second Division at the time when Sir Alex Ferguson started coaching them but within just three years he took them to the First Division title and he did it with the squad with an average age of 19 years old.
St.Mirren will become the only club to have sacked Ferguson, but even so it was evident that even at that early stage Alex demonstrated his huge personality and a big vocal presence where he saw football as a an attacking game, like it was played in Scotland at the time.
At 36 years of age he joined Aberdeen and made history, his years at that club were from 1978–1986 and there he became of the best young managers in Europe.
Ferguson went on to win his first league title in the 1979-80 season.
That triumph was only the second in the history of Aberdeen, the other coming 25 seasons earlier.
His league title was also incredibly significant because it was the first time in 15 years that neither Celtic or Rangers won the Scottish league title.
But that was just the start, after he won the Scottish Cup against Rangers 4-1, Aberdeen started the European Cup Winners' Cup tour where they eliminated the likes of Bayern Munich and went on to beat Real Madrid in the final 2:1.
Next year Aberdeen won the European Super Cup title winning against Hamburger SV, till this day Aberdeen is the last Scottish club to win a European title.
After influencing the Scottish football so much he took charge as the national coach for a short while since many of his own players became so good for the national team, Scotland qualified to the World Cup and Fergie went to Mexico in 1986.
After so many things he had done so early in his career, came his final move, to Old Trafford.
His first teamsheet.
His start wasn't easy in the first years, he almost lost his job after losing against Oxford United 0:2.
All good stories start with an FA Cup?
The first silverware Sir Ferguson updated in the Manchester United cabinet was 1990's FA Cup title.
The start of something special.
One of the many of his kids, this one goes by the name of David.
"He brought me to the club that I loved as a kid and I was successful at the club, so he gave me everything in my career." - Future Sir David Beckham.
First league title came as soon as 1992/93' season was over and it marked a new era in English football.
The Devil is in the details, the class of 92'.
The one red devil that Fergie could always count on ever since he knocked on his door when he was very young and told him to commit to Manchester United.
Fast forward a few league, cup and other titles since the first one that crowned Fergie as the league's finest and Teddy Sheringham as the best scorer in the Premier league, comes to year of the Red Devils 1999 and a historical treble.
Will Manchester United score, they always score...Beckham, in towards Schmeichel, it's come till Dwight Yorke, cleared, Giggs with the shot, Sheringham!!!!! N A M E on The Trophy!
Is this their moment, Beckham, in to Sheringham AND Solskjaer has done it!!!! Manchester United have reached the promised land!!
Fast forward a few more titles and then came 3 in a row domination from 2006/07-2008/09 and his best son, the one that won Ballon d'Or for the first time since George Best, a relationship that still lasts and that was crowed in that famous night in Moscow.
20 times in total, 2012/13 last time.
His last captain.
Goodbye speech
I took this opportunity not as much to talk about personal life stories and tactics, but to give respect to the greatest manager of all time because he recently had suffered a brain haemorrhage and was operated.
His first words after waking up from the surgery were: "How did Doncaster get on?" This man is more than a legend, I saw him live in Old Trafford once in my life in 2009, before the statue, before the name of the whole stand and I wish him to recover, respect to the biggest boss that the Brittish football has produced.