Around the world in 80 years? No, Sir Alex Ferguson is no globetrotter. But a great coach – whose word is still law.
A few months ago, Gary Neville was given the honour of interviewing Sir Alex Ferguson. Manchester United’s ex-professional relayed to the coaching legend, under whom Neville had won countless titles himself at the club, what fans were keen to know from the club icon. Particularly interesting: the greeting. Neville announced his guest not as “Mister Ferguson”, nor as “Sir Alex”. Instead, as he had probably always done: “The boss.”
That said it all. Ferguson is the boss, the boss. His word around Old Trafford not only carries weight. It is still the law. Without him, no coach is sacked, no one is signed. When it’s really important, they ask him. And sometimes he doesn’t even have to speak. Then a look at his face is enough, which became an unadulterated mirror of the soul during the Red Devils’ 5-0 defeat by Liverpool FC a few weeks ago. Pale and despairing, he watched Jürgen Klopp’s team dismantle his club. Something like that causes Ferguson physical and emotional pain, something like that could not remain without consequences. As the downward trend continued, even the powerful man at the back could not help himself. He lowered his thumb, agreed to the dismissal of the man who had once given coach Ferguson the Champions League victory as a player: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
1999. against Bayern. In Fergie Time. But even the coach himself had already given up all hope back then, when the Munich team was leading 1-0 and that very injury time had just begun. “Did I really think we could still win? No! No chance.” But Teddy Sheringham and Solskjaer took them. That alone was lucky enough for United, but equally Ferguson knew best that Bayern could have been 3-0 up at that point. Of course the Scot was happy, cheering at Camp Nou. Exuberant, but not disrespectful.
In the minutes of great happiness and triumph, he found comforting words for Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld. Later Ferguson summed up this game in a way that couldn’t be more fitting: “Football, bloody hell.” With this quote as its headline, the ‘FAZ’ saw the coach off into retirement in 2013. Hitzfeld has never forgotten the fairness of his counterpart. When Ferguson was awarded the Walther Bensemann Prize in 2016 – two years after Hitzfeld – the German coach paid tribute to him: “You can’t overestimate what it means to work at this level for so long at a club with this level of expectation, to win so many titles and to permanently confirm these successes. His achievement is unimaginable because it requires not only the sporting focus but also an interpersonal approach.”
That sums it up very well. At the same time, however, the secret of his success has indeed remained one. A coach who permanently controlled his players, but whom they trusted like their own father, as Paul Ince once said: “He always treated me like a son.” A coach who protected his players, but at the same time rounded them off in front of everyone with the famous “Fergie hairdryer” (a yelling that replaced the hairdryer). A coach who was certainly no saint during his time at United from 1986 to 2013, because he liked to put subtle pressure on referees, but who at the same time enjoys the respect of even his biggest opponents: “Regardless of our differences: What he has achieved is simply fantastic.” Said Arsenal’s ex-coach, rival Arsene Wenger. Ferguson always maltreated more than his chewing gum, but mutated into an obliging host when he served his guests at Old Trafford specialities from his own huge wine cellar.
What unites all the contradictions is his direct manner. He may have moved from Govan (Glasgow), the house where he lived with his parents (667, Govan Road) had to go. But the down-to-earth, the neighbourhood, the rough but always honest manner, still resides in him.
Naturally, Ferguson is quieter more than eight years after his last game, after his last championship and also that of the record title holder. He doesn’t interfere permanently, but he does intervene when it matters. Because Ferguson is not only the grey eminence, but above all the clever eminence in the background. Whether his famous phone call to Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer actually lasted only 20 seconds and consisted of a single sentence, as the always fanciful newspaper ‘Daily Star’ believes to know? “Don’t go to Manchester City.” Five words. One message. No backtalk. Could be, but it’s also not crucial. Ferguson’s relationship of trust with Ronaldo will also have played a role in this transfer, which realistically took weeks to arrange and was not decided in 20 seconds. No matter. But the story is too good not to be true.
And it fits so well. Especially since Ferguson, knighted by the Queen in 1999, will celebrate his 80th birthday on 31 December. The whole world will congratulate him, he is also unforgotten in Aberdeen, where his breakthrough as a coach began. All the congratulations will make him happy, sir, even more so since he narrowly escaped death with a brain haemorrhage in 2018. Ferguson describes those dramatic hours in the documentary Never give in, directed by his son Jason: “There were five cases of brain haemorrhage in the hospital that day. Three died. Two survived. That’s when you know you’re lucky.” Indeed.
Does Ralf Rangnick give Ferguson the joy of a championship?
Whatever one’s opinion of Manchester United, one wishes Ferguson would live to see a coach who at least once manages to do what he has done 13 times in 27 years: lead the Red Devils to the championship. Perhaps Ralf Rangnick will give him that pleasure if he remains United’s coach beyond the summer? Ferguson and Rangnick met in 2016 at the Bensemann Award ceremony.
However, no other United representative would ever be able to say without an outcry in and around Manchester that he thinks Anfield, the stadium of arch-rivals Liverpool FC, is the most atmospheric in England next to Old Trafford. Sir Alex does. He is allowed to do that, he does that. The exciting question remains: Does CR7 actually have his mentor’s number saved under “Boss”?
