How Sir Alex Ferguson rebuild Manchester United and why he is the greatest manager to ever exist!!

A thread:

Before we start with Saf’s managerial career at Manchester United, it is important to understand the dire state of our club.

During the 1986/87 season, Roy Atkinson was the manager of Manchester United and things could not have started off more badly for him.

After 11 games, Roy Atkinson’s Manchester United were 19th in the table!!!

Fourth from bottom in the first division, 19 years without winning the league, forced to be insignificant, change was a MUST.

Martin Edwards (former chairman) decided to sack Roy Atkinson after the abysmal run and bring in Sir Alex Ferguson.

This would turn out to be the best decision of his life.

P.S: The way Martin Edwards approached Aberdeen and Saf was hilarious and it deserves its own thread.

As soon as Sir Alex settled in, he realized that he had to change the culture at MUFC to build up a dynasty! He immediately observed the problems at MUFC and started solving them ASAP.

Let’s look at them below:

As soon as Sir Alex arrived in 1986, he set out to create a structure for the long term. He did this by modernizing our youth program by establishing 2 centers of excellence. He did this by recruiting scouts who would sign players as young as 9!

Via this setup, Sir Alex was able to sign the 13 year old Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, David Beckham... just to name a few.

Back then, signing youngsters was looked down upon as a gamble. It did not follow trend. Pundits were even quoted saying: “You can’t win anything with kids.”

But Sir Alex did not follow trend, he made new trends. He was a genius!

Sir Alex explained this philosophy to Harvard Business review, where he said 99% managers aim to survive by winning, hence they bring experience players in whereas he “wanted to build a football club.”

(His Transcript from HBR is attached below):

This wasn’t the only problem Sir Alex had to solve.

Sir Alex inherited a very talented team as he had players such as Bryan Robson, Paul McGrath, Norman Whiteside, and Gordon Strachan. These players weren’t disciplined as they loved drinking a bit too much.

Sir Alex immediately enforced a rule that no player should drink during training and he talked to captain Bryan Robson to reduce the party lifestyle. Of-course this did not solve the problem.

Whiteside and Gordon were both shipped as Sir Alex’s warnings went unheard. (Crucial)

Now, let’s remember that Sir Alex was also a football manager whose team were 19th and fighting relegation....

Sir Alex was easily able to divert this crisis! We finished 11th in the league that year avoiding any talk of relegation. But this was just the beginning!

During the 1987-1988 season, Sir Alex was still building his “football club” but he still managed to finish 2nd in the league.

The 1988-1989 was probably Sir Alex’s worst season at Manchester United. This was because Manchester United did not really have the money to spent... fans were at thier back and the mentality wasn’t right...

The 1989-1990 season was a turning point under Sir Alex in terms of mentality! Sir Alex won the FA Cup against Crystal Palace!

The winning mentality was now instilled! The following year Manchester United win the first UEFA cup winners title! We became the first English side to win a European competition since the 1980s when they beat Barcelona in the final, winning 2-1!

Winning “Domino effect” starts

The youth system established by Sir Alex was just beginning to show... but there were still a few pieces missing as United finished 2nd in the 1991-1992 season. Eric Cantona filled this missing peice

We won the league title next season after signing Eric Cantona midway!

Now the contributions Eric Cantona had on United deserve a new thread! But Sir Alex’s incredible story needs to be focused on!

Sir Alex build a dynasty of a club, which before he arrived was battling relegation! There is no manager in the world who will ever be able to do this!

Sir Alex turned children into legends. Most world class managers turn good players into great players...