Manchester United: What made Sir Alex Ferguson so successful? – The Athletic
For Sir Alex Ferguson, the road to managerial majesty started at the age of 32 in the summer of 1974. Little encapsulates his journey from chip fat to champagne more vividly than the state of the club he inherited in his first coaching role.
East Stirlingshire ended the previous campaign fourth from bottom in Scotland’s second division, the lowest tier of the Scottish Football League, and the scale of the task becomes clearer when we learn the nature of Ferguson’s early conversa…….
For Sir Alex Ferguson, the road to managerial majesty started at the age of 32 in the summer of 1974. Little encapsulates his journey from chip fat to champagne more vividly than the state of the club he inherited in his first coaching role.
East Stirlingshire ended the previous campaign fourth from bottom in Scotland’s second division, the lowest tier of the Scottish Football League, and the scale of the task becomes clearer when we learn the nature of Ferguson’s early conversations with his chairman Willie Muirhead.
“As I mentioned to the board, it always helps if you start a match with a goalie,” Ferguson said.
Money was tight. Ferguson was being paid £40 a week and his transfer budget was £2,000. He signed a goalkeeper, Tom Gourlay, from Partick Thistle reserves. Ferguson said he had good presence and was fearless. He was also said to be two stones (12kg) overweight.
After scratching around for free agents, he mustered a squad that numbered into double figures for the Falkirk-based club’s 1974-75 season. In Ferguson’s 2000 autobiography Managing My Life, he quipped: “I had a squad of 15. It was enough to send a man power crazy.”
Maybe it won’t shock you to learn that his first match, a League Cup fixture away to Forfar, saw a Ferguson team fall 3-0 behind before drawing 3-3.
Over the 39 years and 2,154 professional matches that followed, Ferguson became not only the most powerful man in East Stirlingshire but also the most influential and successful manager in Great Britain.
On New Year’s Eve, he will turn 80. And with greater distance since his retirement from managing Manchester United after the 2012-13 season, Ferguson’s achievements only appear more astounding.
