Sir Alex Ferguson made history last May by helping Manchester United win their 19th League crown, will his early rampage through the transfer market help United towards their 20th title next season?
Last season Manchester United won their 19th League title to surpass bitter rivals Liverpool’s total of 18, giving the Manchester United fans the bragging rights over their arch-rivals, they could now claim that they are the best club in English history. When Sir Alex Ferguson took over at Manchester United twenty five years ago, not even the most die-hard fan could have hoped for Manchester United to achieve so much in such a short space of time, it’s hard to believe that the man who has brought all this success to the Manchester club was one game away from getting fired, his FA Cup win in 1990 is often touted as the game that saved his Manchester United career.
The boards’ perseverance with this once unproven manager has paid off in ways they could never have imagined, it’s a shame how rare it is to see managers get as much time as Sir Alex Ferguson did when he first started managing United. Over time Sir Alex Ferguson has proven he’s arguably the most successful manager that has ever lived, the obvious sign of this is the sheer amount of trophies he’s won. The way he manages is a template to any young or any established manager, he’s shown time and time again that he’s capable of building championship winning teams.
These past couple of weeks have been a reminder about why Manchester United have been so successful under Sir Alex Ferguson, it hadn’t been long that the season had finished and Manchester United had been linked with three top signings that would strengthen their squad. Sir Alex Ferguson’s ruthlessness in the transfer market is one of the main reasons that United have been so consistently brilliant in the past 25 years. Sir Alex has the attitude where, if he sees a weakness in his squad, or if there’s a player he wants, he just goes out and gets the player at all costs. This has been evident in the past, the one that stands out for me was the signing of Wayne Rooney, Manchester United had stated they weren’t interested in signing Rooney from Everton in the summer of 2004, but late in the transfer window Newcastle United made a bid and the rest is history, once Sir Alex knew there was a chance Rooney could move to another club, he made him a Manchester United player.
This type of ruthlessness has been seen again this summer, before the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal or Manchester City have made any signings, United have signed three players that will undoubtedly benefit their team, more importantly, the business is done nice and early and ready for pre-season. Phil Jones had an impressive debut season with Blackburn Rovers, showing at only 19 that he’s not out of his depth, putting in a string of fine performances for Rovers in the centre of defence and as a holding player in midfield. Ferguson saw Jones as a perfect partner for future United star Chris Smalling and was aware that Arsenal were making a move for Jones, Sir Alex acted and nabbed him from under Arsene Wenger’s nose.
Ferguson has a good choice of possible centre backs, Rio, Vidic, Smalling and Evans, the only weak link there is Evans, but you feel some managers would still be satisfied with those four centre halves in their squad. Despite the strength in depth this squad has, Ferguson is always looking for ways to improve it, with Jones added to this quartet, United now have a mixture of the best senior and young centre backs in the world, and the presence of Jones is only going to push Smalling and Evans to become even better players. The same could be said for Ashley Young, Manchester United already have two world class wingers in Antonio Valencia and Nani, with a very reliable back up of Park Ji Sung, many managers would be satisfied with having them three players to choose from, not Sir Alex. The Manchester United manager will now have created some healthy competition between three world class wingers, all of which appear to have the characteristics to push each other to become better players.
I suppose you can compare him with Arsene Wenger in the respect that Wenger is the complete opposite, to this day Arsenal still haven’t replaced Patrick Vieira who left the club in 2005, 6 seasons ago, the last season Arsenal won their last trophy. Wenger appears to be very stubborn in the transfer market and wants to do business in exactly the same way that he did it when he was at Arsenal in his early days, he wants to pick up bargains and he doesn’t like being bullied into spending more money than he thinks is necessary. Sadly sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and pay an extra five or six million for a player, because at the end of the day, if you win trophies because of it, nobody’s going to care that you overspent on the players that have won you those trophies.
This stubbornness from Wenger could be highlighted again in their business regarding centre halves, whilst it was quite evident that Arsenal needed quality centre backs last summer, Wenger went and got Squillaci who turned out to be a disaster, and Koscielny who had very little experience at the top level. Wenger also admitted that he needed at least five centre backs, but didn’t bother getting that 5th centre back in the summer and decided not to again in the January transfer window. With Ferguson, I believe he’s foreseen a problem, not quite on the same scale as Wenger’s, and has covered himself well in advance and given Smalling and Jones a few years to familiarise with the way each other play, so when they are his first choice centre backs, they’ll be more than ready to fill the massive hole that will be left by Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.
Today Sir Alex has shown Wenger what to do when you’re number one goalkeeper retires, Wenger’s choice was to make number two Almunia his new number one goalkeeper, it was evident in the early stages that Almunia wasn’t up to the job, since Lehmann’s departure Wenger still hasn’t brought in a goalkeeper that would be considered a suitable replacement for him. Sir Alex has a better goalkeeper than Almunia in Kuszczak, despite Kuszczak being a good goalkeeper, Fergie knows he wouldn’t be able to fill Van Der Saar’s boots adequately, so has gone out to get a replacement immediately in De Gea of Atletico Madrid. The juries out as to whether De Gea can handle the responsibility of being United’s goalkeeper at such a young age, but from what I’ve seen of him it looks as if he’s the real deal and Fergie may have another great signing on his hands.
There’s not really a right or a wrong way to successfully manage a football team, but Sir Alex Ferguson is the perfect role model for any manager, regardless of their stature. Sir Alex knows exactly when a player has had his day, and has no problems in building a new squad, Sir Alex has high standards and gets the perfect mix of youth and experience in his squad. Ultimately, Sir Alex Ferguson’s ruthlessness in the transfer window and his desire to have the best squad possible is the reason that Manchester United have been so successful whilst he’s been in charge. Over the past six years Fergie has constantly been adding to his squad with a sprinkling of signings that fill a weakness in United’s team, whilst Wenger has been contempt with spending as little as possible, hoping his youngsters and budget signings could keep up with United’s dominance. I believe that this is the main reason that United have won eight trophies in the past six seasons and Arsenal haven’t won a thing, a trend that may well continue if the past repeats itself this summer.
0 comments:
Post a Comment