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Sophie Finnigan – 1048 words.
A Tribute to Two Legends
1878. An English Professionalfootball club is formed under the name of
Newton Heath. 1902, theclub is given the name Manchester United F.C. 1910,
the club moves to The Theatre of Dreams – Old Trafford. Fastforward 112
years, Manchester United is one of the mostsuccessfulclubs in English
footballing history.
The Manchester United team, otherwiseknown as the ‘Red Devils’, havehad
their fair shareof history. Oneof the most tragic footballing events – The
Munich Air Disaster, 1958, –claimed the lives of 8 of their talented players.
‘when British European Airways flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take
off from a slush-covered runwayatMunich-Riem Airport’ (Wikipedia).
The club’s comeback fromthis tragedy, (under the watchfuleye of Sir Matt
Busby) was outstanding. Busby boughtnew players such as Dennis Law and
recruited youth players such as GeorgeBest , who both became incredibly
famous due to their unique footballing skill, and was able to rebuild the team
around the surviving members. Theteam slowly but surely roseto success.
They only won one league game after the crash that season and dropped to
ninth place. However, they did come second in the FA Cup, losing to Bolton

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Wanderers. They then finished top in the years of 1965 and 1967. Busby’s
finest hour was the day when Manchester United became the first English
football team to win the European Cup, beating Benefica, 10 years after the
crash. This was a game to go down in footballing history.
Sir Matt Busby retired in 1969 and with his legacy echoing through the roaring
crowds in the stadiumof Old Trafford it is hard to say whether anyonecould
beat Busby’s commitmentand dedication to the club. However, oneman has
certainly risen to the challenge and equalled Sir Matt Busby’s legendary status.
“Every single one of us, Loves Alex Ferguson!” A chant that is often heard
roaring around the stands of Old Trafford during match days.
Sir Alex Ferguson joined the club after briefly managing Scotland after the
death of Jock Stein, and was appointed manager on November 6th
1986.
Looking over the past 26 years, hehas achieved whatwas once thought as the
impossible, and is now widely recognised as one of the mostsuccessful
footballing managers of all time. But what makes Fergie so widely loved, and
how did he gain such respect?
Managerial Skills

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To become a successfulmanager in any career, you need to have a certain
skills set – Fergie has them all. His confidence, commitment and passion for
Manchester United show no bounds. A fine example of this was the 1988-99
season, which saw Manchester United famously win the treble, despite their
firstgame being a 3-0 loss to Arsenalin the Charity Shield.
Ferguson solely believed in acting quickly and forcefully, he was not afraid to
sack players if they did the slightestthing wrong. For example, Rud van
Nistelrooy, (Manchester United striker, 2001-06) fourth highestgoal scorer in
the Champions League (56 goals), was sold to Real Madrid for €14 million after
verbally venting his anger for being benched. He also threatened to sack
players after their 2008 Champions Leaguetriumph should they become
complacent and lazy.
Fergie’s biggest assetwas that he never stopped adapting. He dared to gamble.
Fergie had players practicing bagging goals in less than 3 minutes in their
training sessions–healways had top players on this bench ready to play should
they be losing. He was always prepared to win.
“Stadiums have improved, pitches are in perfect condition now, and sports
science has had a strong influence on how weprepare for the season…I believe
you can control change by accepting it. I couldn’tafford not to change” – Sir
Alex Ferguson in Forbes.

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Winnings and Record Breaking
A way to proveyour success as a footballing manager is, of course, to win
games and bring home the silverware, and boy did Fergie does justthat.
Before he started at Manchester United they had not won a single title in two
decades. Despite this, at the end of his spin at United, SAF had bagged 13
League Championships, 5 FA cups, 4 League cups, two European Championship
League successes and the Cup Winner’s Cup, making his the mostsuccessful
managerial career in Britain’s football today.
Not only has he broughthome trophies, the boss also broke many world
records with his players. For example, Fergie brokethe British Transfer world
record in January 1995 for signing English Forward/Midfielder Andy Cole, for a
total sumof £700,000,000. This was then broken in 2001 by the signing of
Veron for £28,100,000and again in 2002 by the recruitment of Rio Ferdinand
for a staggering £29,100,000. Thesaleof Christiano Ronaldo, 2009, to Real
Madrid also brokethe transfer record for an outstanding £80,000,000. This
makes Ronaldo the second highest sale, only recently beaten by Gareth Bale
who was also sold to Real Madrid for a staggering £86 million.
Charitable Work

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Fergie gained the respectof many footballers and football fans worldwidefor
the charity work he has been, and still is, involved in, ranging from community
issues to worldwidecharities, such as being a UNICEF Ambassador.
Despite a lot of his work being publicised by the media or by the chosen charity
(for example; Fergie promoted lung charity named ‘Roy Castle Lung Cancer
Foundation’ after he lost both of his parents to the illness), a lot of his charity
work goes unsung. For example, a long serving member of staff at Manchester
United Football Ground was driven to work by husband every day. Tragically,
her husband passed away. When Fergieheard, he not only paid a personal visit
to her home in Salford to express his sympathy, henow pays for her transport
to and fromthe grounds every day so that shewas able to keep her job and
not have to worry aboutfunding her travel expenses to work and back.
As the footballing world progresses with wages rises and stadiums improving
drastically, futurefootballing managers should always look back on the work of
Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Alex Ferguson as a remarkable example of how not
to forget why football began – passion for the game.