THE
STORY OF
MAn UTDfter Manchester United had come so close to winning
their first league title for a quarter of a century the
previous season, an acute sense of disappointment
lingered with Ferguson and his players throughout
the summer of 1992.
“It was a really terrible time; a horrible feeling
stayed with me for months,” former United captain
Steve Bruce has recalled. “We knew we were the best
team in England and it was now up to us to prove it,
but that disappointment was really hard to shift in
the opening months.”
While Ferguson had attempted to inspire his squad
with bold words about how they would find strength
in their despondency and how their failure would
make them better men, there was little evidence of that when the
1992 –93 season kicked off. At the dawn of the new Premier League,
United took just one point from their opening three league games,
which included worrying defeats to both Sheffield United and Everton.
Ferguson’s side would rally with five consecutive league wins in
August and September but slump in the autumn and go on a run of
seven league games without a win to leave them tenth in the table.
The major problem was United’s lack of goals, which had severely
undermined their title challenge towards the end of the previous
season and was once again hurting them.
Ferguson had unsuccessfully attempted to sign Alan Shearer from
Southampton in a bid to bolster his forward line, the Geordie striker
instead moving to Blackburn Rovers, and he also failed to tempt
David Hirst from Sheffield Wednesday.
Instead, Ferguson had to be content with bringing in a less-
heralded striker in Dion Dublin from Cambridge, but he would break
his leg in September to add to United’s glaring weakness.
At the start of November 1992, following three league games
without scoring, Ferguson knew he had to act, and after getting
nowhere with Hirst again, the United manager was surprised to learnA
that Leeds United were willing to sell their enigmatic French striker,
Eric Cantona.
United quickly signed Cantona for just £1 million, and as Ferguson
has reflected, “One of the most extraordinary periods in the history
of Manchester United was about to begin.”
“Eric had an impact on all of us; he lifted us, gave us belief and led
us towards the title,” said Bruce. “He was a great trainer, professional
and athlete, and he brought an aura that demanded the best.”
Cantona would himself score nine league goals and also bring out
the best in his new team-mates. Before he arrived, United had scored
18 goals in 17 games, but with him they would net 49 goals in 25
games, earning him the nickname of ‘the can-opener’ from Ferguson.
Within a month United went top of the Premier League, and,
after fending off the challenge of Aston Villa, they were there at the
end of the season to become league champions for the first time
since 1967.
“It was the day I truly became manager of Manchester United,”
Ferguson has said. “It was the historic moment when I could finally
realise, even inwardly accept for the first time, that I was the man
in charge. There was a sudden, overwhelming realisation that now
I was master of my own destiny.”
A newly emboldened Ferguson used this to guide United to their
first-ever league and FA Cup double the following season, with a side
many still contend was the greatest in the club’s history.
It featured a starting 11 that fans can recite with ease: arguably
the game’s greatest-ever goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, protectedBelow Ryan
Giggs in thrilling
full flight
playing against
Ipswich Town
in May 1994
Bottom Roy
Keane lifts the
Premier League
trophy aloft, 8
May 199476 The Story of Man Utd FourFourTwo.com