ImagesGetty ImagesFerguson would lose his first game in charge, 2-0 away to Oxford
United, a game that left him shocked at his players’ overall quality,
particularly their physicality and fitness.
“I came to the conclusion the players’ standard of fitness was
simply not good enough,” Ferguson has said. “There was no way they
were able to compete in 60 battles over a season.”
Ferguson introduced a new training regime, with longer and
tougher sessions overseen by his trusted assistant, Archie Knox, who
he had brought with him from Aberdeen, which the United captain
Bryan Robson quickly claimed made him feel stronger than ever.
This helped inspire United to a run of only two defeats in 16 league
games between November and March, an upturn in form that lifted
them clear of the relegation zone to a final finish of 11th, which was
still their lowest top-flight finish since they were relegated in 1974.
Ferguson was brave enough to admit he had realised he had “no
real inkling about the demands... and no manager [could be]
prepared for the job at Old Trafford. For the first time in my life I felt
my whole character and abilities were under scrutiny.”
“When I met the directors at the end of my first half season I told
them we needed nine new players to win the championship. To put it
mildly, I think they were surprised. We had too many players the
wrong side of 28, who were too old to go for the challenges I had in
mind... they had lost the magic spark.”Below
Manchester
United celebrate
winning the
double after a
4-0 win over
Chelsea in the
1994 FA Cup
final.“ FERGUSOn HAD ALREADY TURn ED DOWn
APPROACHES FROM RAn GERS, ARSEn A L
A nD TOTTEn HAM, BUT COULD n OT RESIST
THE ALLURE OF Un ITED”
Left Alex
Ferguson greets
the fans before
his first game
as United
manager at Old
Trafford in
November 1986Ferguson started his squad rebuild, moving on seven players and
entering the transfer market in the summer of 1987 with gusto; he
might have failed to sign Peter Beardsley and John Barnes, who both
went to Liverpool, but he did manage to bring in the Arsenal defender
Viv Anderson and the Celtic striker Brian McClair, before adding Steve
Bruce from Norwich City in December that year.
In the 1987–88 season a more confident Ferguson, helped by
these new players, lifted United to a second-placed finish, their
highest since 1980, but at no point were they ever in a meaningful
title race with Liverpool, who finished a comfortable nine points
ahead of them.
That summer Ferguson brought Mark Hughes back to the club from
Barcelona and purchased his old goalkeeper Jim Leighton from
Aberdeen, but any progress from the previous season was lost as
United tumbled back to an embarrassing finish of 11th.
Ferguson still did not fully trust many of the players in his dressing
room. “I resolved that I had to change everything round and gather a
squad around me capable of winning the league. I just knew I had to
go for it,” he has said.
Arsenal had won the league title in 1989 to break seven years of
Merseyside dominance to further inspire Ferguson. “[Arsenal
manager] George Graham had challenged the might of Anfield and
come out on top, which gave me the impetus I needed. I resolved
there and then that if he could do it so could I.”
In the summer of 1989 Ferguson spent £7.5 million on five players- Gary Pallister, Mike Phelan, Danny Wallace, Neil Webb and Paul Ince
- while allowing three major players – Norman Whiteside, Paul
McGrath and Gordon Strachan – to leave for new clubs.
On the opening day of the season Old Trafford glowed with
optimism after United defeated the champions Arsenal 4-1. New
signing Neil Webb, who had scored a stunning goal, later recalled,
“After we had completely outplayed them I walked off the pitch with
the crowd giving us a great reception, thinking, ‘The changes really
seemed to have worked. This could be a big year for us’. It was to be a
terrible false dawn.”
Webb would soon pick up an injury that ruled him out for seven
months, and the other new signings struggled as United lost three of
their next four league games before being humiliated 5-1 by
Manchester City at Maine Road at the end of September.
“Every time somebody looks at me I feel as if I have betrayed that
man,” Ferguson told The Sunday Times about his state of mind in the
week following the loss to City. “After such a result you feel you have
to creep around corners, feel as if you are some kind of criminal. But
that’s only because you care deeply.”
Ferguson wasn’t being melodramatic or exaggerating how
unpopular he had become, as both United’s fans and players were
rapidly losing faith.
He had been given time and money, but it wasn’t working, and
during the winter of 1989 United went on a painful run of 11 league
games without a win that saw them slump to 17th in the table.
During a 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace at an agitated Old Trafford
hosting 14,000 fewer fans than on that sun-bathed opening day,
chants of “Fergie out” could be heard on the cold air, and the man
himself recalls being “howled out of the ground”. That same day one
supporter, Peter Molyneux, famously unfurled a banner in the stands
with the message, “Three years of excuses. Ta-ra Fergie.”
After a crucial FA Cup win over Nottingham Forest (see page 41),
United’s form in the First Division continued to fluctuate, and it wasn’t
until April that they finally pulled themselves clear of the relegation
zone, but in the FA Cup they were able to beat Hereford, Newcastle,
Sheffield United and Oldham (after a replay) to reach the final against
Crystal Palace.
In a classic Wembley final United and Palace swapped the lead
three times during 120 frantic minutes; the Londoners went 1-0 in
front in the first half before goals from Robson and Hughes gave
United a 2-1 lead, only for Ian Wright to come on as a substitute and
score twice. Hughes rescued United by scoring with seven minutes of
extra time left to end the game 3-3 and ensure a replay.
THE MAn
FROM
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