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Man for Manchester

Dhritiman Hui

Alex Fergusson, manager of Manchester's favourite sons, the Manchester United football club, could hardly be called a dewy-eyed romantic, yet the great man did seem genuinely moved last week at Old Trafford, as his dearest wish was finally granted.

Manchester United annexed their fifth Premiership title in seven seasons, and this was particularly special for Scotsman 'Fergie' Fergusson, not because its seizure quite possibly paved the way for a historic, improbable treble, but because it was won at Old Trafford, the Theatre of Dreams.

joy was uncontained, his chest-thumping antics doing little to preserve a carefully chiselled reputation as a cold-hearted and detached individual.

''When I first came here I hoped for two things," he said, "to one day win the championship and then to win it in front of our own fans."

David Beckham, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and Roy Keane are now two steps away from realising a dream that all of Old Trafford has been too scared to dream for the last year. They say players win football matches, not managers, but if Manchester United win any or all of the three games in 11 days, which their audacious bid for an unprecedented treble has boiled down to, the achievement will belong solely to Alex Ferguson.

Why? Because Fergusson has been at Old Trafford long enough to put an entire team together and reinvent the club's ethos. And also because every single Manchester United player is a walking embodiment of the old-fashioned work ethic that the singularly driven manager has brought to the club.
Talk to any player, and, in addition to hearing how 'the gaffer is brilliant at getting us up for games', you cannot fail to notice the respect they have for 'Fergie', pure and simple.

Schmeichel recently described Fergusson as a special man and a special manager. "As he's got older he's got calmer," said Denis Irwin, a little less reverently. "Mind you he needed to. I can remember what he was like eight years ago, and apparently he was even worse at Aberdeen. I find that quite hard to imagine, but I pity those Aberdeen players."
Brian Kidd, manager of Blackburn Football club, one of the less fortunate sides in the league, cited United as proof that not all overpaid, pampered Premiership players lack fire in their bellies and shrink from a challenge.
"United are a credit to their profession," Kidd said.

Giving an interview a few days ago, Nicky Butt unwittingly demonstrated why. "I don't think any of us thought at 14 we would go on together to such big things," said the midfielder when asked about growing up in the United youth team. "Not that I've not still got a lot to learn," he corrected himself hastily. "And although six of us came through together, a lot didn't. I know plenty of good players who are laying bricks now."

Fergusson would have been proud of him. It might have been the manager himself speaking. The old fire breather denies putting any conscious effort into his motivational style, claiming it simply stems from his upbringing, which would include the influence of his parents and his apprenticeship served in a Glasgow shipyard. "My father always stressed the importance of discipline and time keeping," he said. "I absorbed a lot of that. I was never once late in five years as an apprentice.
"Your upbringing is essential to how you are, but so are the experiences in life that make you different from your parents, experiences that in my case brought a certain drive that's hard to quell."

Fergusson went on to identify his first Manchester United championship, in 1993, as a very crucial juncture in his life. "If you look at everything that happened up to that point, and everything that has happened since, you're looking at two completely different things," he said.
"Players, especially strikers, brought here before '93 were under enormous pressure, and now they are not. I was under pressure then too. I never thought I would get sacked, I refused to put myself under that extra pressure."

That win in 1993 made all the difference for Fergie and the host of wards that came under his supervision for the next six years.
"Winning that first title gave me longevity and control. That's the deal for managers, only through success can you have control."

Perhaps that's why Fergusson, like Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, is desperate for more. You sense both men take disappointment personally, though Fergusson at least is willing to acknowledge Arsenal's excellence.

Last season, that is. Maybe in about 12 months' time he will have something to say about their current campaign. "We were all very disappointed last year," he said. "We should have won the League with the lead we had, and we all knew that. But you have to say Arsenal were terrific. To finish a season like that deserved a title."

Roy Keane, skipper of the side, finds himself arrested, and unable to play the side's encounter against Newcastle, the defence still looks like it can be pierced by those blessed with fleetness of foot, and Andy Cole still seems unable to find the net in all the high pressure games, but Alex Fergusson will allow himself a rare pint and tell himself that if nothing else works, his bulldog spirit will pull his club through against Newcatle this weekend, and more crucially against Bayern Munich on the 26th of the month.

Destiny awaits.