25 Years and Counting

Sir Alex Ferguson celebrated his 25^th anniversary at Manchester United this week and although the years have produced 37 trophies, it hasn’t always been easy for the longest serving manager at Old Trafford. Manchester United’s previous great Scottish manager, Sir Matt Busby, was given a road in his honour – Sir Matt Busby Way- and Ferguson has been given Old Trafford’s North Stand. The newly named stand was unveiled as the Sir Alex Ferguson stand before the Sunderland game at the weekend after a guard of honour.

Despite his fantastic success, Alex Ferguson was on the brink of being sacked after failing to bring silverware instantly to the Old Trafford faithful. After being appointed in 1986, Ferguson’s first piece of silverware came in the 1989/90 season; the FA Cup with a 1-0 replay victory over Crystal Palace. From that moment, the rest, as they say, is history.

There have been many controversial moments during his on-going reign and many questionable ideas but all have been answered. The famous Alan Hansen quote: ‘You’ll never win anything with kids’ was directed at Ferguson’s class of ’92 with the fresh faces of the Nevilles, Giggs, Scholes and Beckham. But Manchester United went onto the win the first FA Premiership in 1992/93.

Arguably his biggest achievement was the historic treble winning season of 1998/99. United won their fifth league title in seven seasons by a solitary point over Arsenal with a 2-1 win over Tottenham on the last day of the season. They recorded the highest victory that year with an 8-1 victory over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, they had the highest attendance and Dwight Yorke was joint top goal scorer with eighteen that season. United then won the FA Cup with a 2-0 victory over Newcastle, Sheringham and Scholes scoring the goals. But the best was yet to come and when they travelled to Camp Nou to play Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, no one expected the outcome. United were 1-0 down in injury time before Sheringham and then Solskjaer scored from corners to win the game 2-1 and complete the famous and unmatched treble.

Then there was the ‘boot incident’ in 2003 when Ferguson allegedly kicked a football boot in anger and hit Beckham with it. This caused a power struggle in which one had to leave and it wasn’t going to be Alex Ferguson. His reign continued and last season he rewrote history again by winning Manchester United’s nineteenth League title, the most in English history overtaking their fiercest rivals Liverpool.

There are so many historic moments in Alex Ferguson’s 25 years and with no hint of stopping, there will be a lot more to come. The most immediate will be how he combats the noisy neighbours, Manchester City and this will make great viewing as the rivalry intensifies.