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Sir Alex Ferguson lost top spot at Liverpool and is now public enemy No 1 with referees, but let's remember that he is ... STILL THE GREATEST
By Jeff Powell Last updated at 11:04 PM on 28th October 2009
Sir Alex Ferguson might be best advised not to stray down any dark alleys as he embarks on his customary winter's journey towards all the football prizes glittering in the sunshine of our next English spring.
This 2009-2010 campaign has turned into open season on the laird of Old Trafford. The rest of our national game is waiting for the mightiest of them all to fall.
Not only that, but gagging to put the boot in should he do so.
Enlarge
The undisputed king: He may be on the ropes but street fighter Ferguson has a knack of bouncing back as two European Cups and 11 league titles undoubtedly prove
And Fergie is the mightiest manager, no matter how bitterly the world outside Manchester United begrudges the dominance exerted by this craggy old Scot over the game England invented.
Never mind the periodic defeat, as on last Sunday, by Rafa's rival Reds, nor the occasional stumble in the grandest amphitheatres, a propos a hot-house night in Rome this May.
Sir Alex is the man no matter how curmudgeonly some of his outbursts - most recently at referees - nor how bullying some of his postures.
The ruffling of authority's feathers and the intimidating of opponents are part and parcel of what it takes to be The Greatest. Ask Muhammad Ali.
As for his critics, I have to confess astonishment at those among my colleagues in the media who scream for Ferguson to be gagged every time he opens his mouth.
Whatever happened, gentlemen, to the freedom of speech which we profess to defend? Where would the stories come from if the leading players in the game of life were silenced?
Yet football, in all its many constituents, is ganging up on the manager who keeps heaping more glory on our national game than most of his peers can begin to imagine.
Enlarge
Unforgettable: Sir Alex Ferguson celebrates with his players at the Nou Camp after United clinched the treble with their European Cup triumph in 1999
On Wednesday, we came to the laughable point where one Roberto Martinez complained Ferguson wields too much power.
Roberto who? For the benefit of the uninitiated, young Mr Martinez used to be the boss at Swansea and is now in charge at Wigan Athletic.
He is a manager of some promise and might very well win something one day.
Until he does, he is not the person to answer this: What is it that makes a man the best at his business we have ever known?
And not even the infernal Fergie's most infuriated rivals - Rafa, Arsene and the impudent Roberto among them - can seriously deny that is what he has become.
Part of it is dealing with defeat, with using even the cruellest setback as the tool for cranking a team to even higher levels of commitment and aspiration.
That is not easy when the loss comes on an occasion as huge as a Champions League final against Barcelona.
It is all the more difficult if you lose the world's best player - namely Cristiano Ronaldo - between setbacks great and small.
But before Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool , Arsenal - even Manchester City - get ahead of themselves, they might consider Ferguson's response to a spot of adversity.
Having reacted with dignity in Rome by acknowledging Barcelona's superiority on the night, just as he did at Liverpool on Sunday, he is using the wisdom of his ages in the game to plot life after Ronaldo.
Enlarge
The making of a legend: Ferguson is chaired by his delighted players after Aberdeen's famous Cup Winners Cup triumph over Real Madrid in 1983
Wayne Rooney is being liberated to fulfil his vast potential, Michael Owen is offered resurrection.
Less obviously, Sir Alex continues to identify and develop young talent. Old Trafford is not only that glamorous Theatre of Dreams but the most productive nursery in the English game.
The process of renewal goes on even after a year of achievement which those who seek to disparage Ferguson would prefer to ignore.
It was better to reach the Champions League final than not to be in Rome at all. Ask Chelsea.
Nor was there any shame in being beaten by such luminous talents as Messi, Xavi and Iniesta. Less so when you have won the World Club Championship, the Premier
League and the League Cup in a season for others to envy.
So what is it that enables a heavyweight champion of the world to come back from a KO, the way Ferguson has done before and is in the process of doing so again?
Ask this man which quality he looks for above all others when he recruits a new batch of kids or signs a £50million superstar and he will give you the answer himself.
'Character,' he will tell you. 'Aye, then it helps if they can play a bit. But first attitude, desire, pride, appetite.'
Hungry Fighter Syndrome has been with us since sport began, since playing games offered poor kids hope of a better future, since the first prizefighters bare-knuckled their way off the mean streets.
Those of us who have argued and laughed, wrangled and embraced, shouted and smiled, commiserated but more often celebrated our way around this archetypal football man for going on 30 years make no claim to special intelligence for having identified early on the ravenous competitor in him. It was as plain as the nose on his face. Still is.
Sir Matt Busby saw it in the steel-blue eyes of a surrogate son from the privations of industrial Scotland when he found, finally, the rightful successor to his Old Trafford fiefdom.
A few of us felt the force of it that night in Gothenburg all those 26 rain-shrouded years ago when even the odd Englishman was invited to raise a beer bottle - the crystal glasses of vintage claret were a long way hence - to salute Aberdeen's improbable slaughter of Real Madrid in the Cup Winners' Cup final.
Although his small, close-knit platoon from the Granite City were still engaged in driving the legions of Rangers and Celtic from the high ground of Scottish football, Fergie was planning greater glories.
That was why he declined an offer of the Ibrox throne. The English game was waiting to be conquered. Manchester was beckoning, and with it the siren call from the peaks of Europe.
Enlarge
The greatest of them all: Sir Alex Ferguson holds aloft the European Cup in Moscow after victory over Chelsea in 2008
Could he prevail where so many had failed? Might he even surpass Sir Matt, his beloved mentor? He had given us the answer that dank night in Gothenburg: 'If you want something that bad, so bad that you are willing to give everything inside you, so bad that you almost drive yourself mad (not to mention those around you, Alex) then you can get it.'
Anyone care to argue? Not advisable. Not even when the old grizzly is cornered in the wake of a setback.
While the majority of people at his age are watching the grass grow, Ferguson is still masterminding scorching football blazing with the fires born of the under-class hardships of his Glasgow boyhood.
Now, as a knight of the realm, Sir Alex does not admit to a sense of real poverty pervading the humble Govan home of his late, ship-builder father
Yet it would be unnatural if the grind of his youth had not shaped his work ethic and his respect for money. Just as the brawling alleyways of the Gorbals toughened him for his social battle against inequality.
Thus was Ferguson forged to march at the head of his Aberdeen foot-soldiers, then to inherit the rich earth of Old Trafford.
It is tempting to say that the rest - the escape from the sack with a fraught victory in Nottingham, the 11 English Championships and two European crowns among an unparalleled host of honours - is history.
Enlarge
Hunger: Sir Alex Ferguson, seen here joking with Juande Ramos last week, is 67 going on 55 as he continues to chase honours with Manchester United
Tempting but not correct. Not when a goodly portion of the rest is yet to come. Not when longevity is a yardstick of greatness.
The man is 67 going on 55. Now, with the wolves at the door, he will be hungrier than ever.
So how the hell can he crank himself up to do it all yet again? For one thing, this natural-born street-fighter is now able to apply all his experience to the enriched condition of the modern game.
Ferguson's managerial span of more than three decades encompasses as many generations of footballers. This, when you come to argue over the accompanying tables of the 10 greatest managers of all time and the best of British, is what distinguishes him from all the rest.
None of the others have adapt ed so cleverly from berating the virtual serfs of the Seventies and Eighties to psycho-analysing the modern game's multi-millionaires.
Where once he singed his footballers with his hair-dryer, he now incites their imagination with lofty ambitions and challenges them with his calls to arms.
It is not for wealth that his teams for the ages have all been prepared to die for him - they could earn similar fortunes elsewhere - it is for his vision of a glory far greater than a few million quid in the bank.
For this fanatic, the bottom line is not the money but how much do you still want the glory?
Like mad in Fergie's case. Like you can't live without it.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1223678/Sir-Alex-Ferguson-lost-spot-Liverpool-public-enemy-No-1-referees-lets-remember---STILL-THE-GREATEST.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0VHnc6QOq
By Jeff Powell Last updated at 11:04 PM on 28th October 2009
Sir Alex Ferguson might be best advised not to stray down any dark alleys as he embarks on his customary winter's journey towards all the football prizes glittering in the sunshine of our next English spring.
This 2009-2010 campaign has turned into open season on the laird of Old Trafford. The rest of our national game is waiting for the mightiest of them all to fall.
Not only that, but gagging to put the boot in should he do so.
Enlarge
The undisputed king: He may be on the ropes but street fighter Ferguson has a knack of bouncing back as two European Cups and 11 league titles undoubtedly proveAnd Fergie is the mightiest manager, no matter how bitterly the world outside Manchester United begrudges the dominance exerted by this craggy old Scot over the game England invented.
Never mind the periodic defeat, as on last Sunday, by Rafa's rival Reds, nor the occasional stumble in the grandest amphitheatres, a propos a hot-house night in Rome this May.
Sir Alex is the man no matter how curmudgeonly some of his outbursts - most recently at referees - nor how bullying some of his postures.
The ruffling of authority's feathers and the intimidating of opponents are part and parcel of what it takes to be The Greatest. Ask Muhammad Ali.
As for his critics, I have to confess astonishment at those among my colleagues in the media who scream for Ferguson to be gagged every time he opens his mouth.
Whatever happened, gentlemen, to the freedom of speech which we profess to defend? Where would the stories come from if the leading players in the game of life were silenced?
Yet football, in all its many constituents, is ganging up on the manager who keeps heaping more glory on our national game than most of his peers can begin to imagine.
Enlarge
Unforgettable: Sir Alex Ferguson celebrates with his players at the Nou Camp after United clinched the treble with their European Cup triumph in 1999On Wednesday, we came to the laughable point where one Roberto Martinez complained Ferguson wields too much power.
Roberto who? For the benefit of the uninitiated, young Mr Martinez used to be the boss at Swansea and is now in charge at Wigan Athletic.
He is a manager of some promise and might very well win something one day.
Until he does, he is not the person to answer this: What is it that makes a man the best at his business we have ever known?
And not even the infernal Fergie's most infuriated rivals - Rafa, Arsene and the impudent Roberto among them - can seriously deny that is what he has become.
Part of it is dealing with defeat, with using even the cruellest setback as the tool for cranking a team to even higher levels of commitment and aspiration.
That is not easy when the loss comes on an occasion as huge as a Champions League final against Barcelona.
It is all the more difficult if you lose the world's best player - namely Cristiano Ronaldo - between setbacks great and small.
But before Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool , Arsenal - even Manchester City - get ahead of themselves, they might consider Ferguson's response to a spot of adversity.
Having reacted with dignity in Rome by acknowledging Barcelona's superiority on the night, just as he did at Liverpool on Sunday, he is using the wisdom of his ages in the game to plot life after Ronaldo.
Enlarge
The making of a legend: Ferguson is chaired by his delighted players after Aberdeen's famous Cup Winners Cup triumph over Real Madrid in 1983Wayne Rooney is being liberated to fulfil his vast potential, Michael Owen is offered resurrection.
Less obviously, Sir Alex continues to identify and develop young talent. Old Trafford is not only that glamorous Theatre of Dreams but the most productive nursery in the English game.
The process of renewal goes on even after a year of achievement which those who seek to disparage Ferguson would prefer to ignore.
It was better to reach the Champions League final than not to be in Rome at all. Ask Chelsea.
Nor was there any shame in being beaten by such luminous talents as Messi, Xavi and Iniesta. Less so when you have won the World Club Championship, the Premier
League and the League Cup in a season for others to envy.
So what is it that enables a heavyweight champion of the world to come back from a KO, the way Ferguson has done before and is in the process of doing so again?
Ask this man which quality he looks for above all others when he recruits a new batch of kids or signs a £50million superstar and he will give you the answer himself.
'Character,' he will tell you. 'Aye, then it helps if they can play a bit. But first attitude, desire, pride, appetite.'
Hungry Fighter Syndrome has been with us since sport began, since playing games offered poor kids hope of a better future, since the first prizefighters bare-knuckled their way off the mean streets.
Those of us who have argued and laughed, wrangled and embraced, shouted and smiled, commiserated but more often celebrated our way around this archetypal football man for going on 30 years make no claim to special intelligence for having identified early on the ravenous competitor in him. It was as plain as the nose on his face. Still is.
Sir Matt Busby saw it in the steel-blue eyes of a surrogate son from the privations of industrial Scotland when he found, finally, the rightful successor to his Old Trafford fiefdom.
A few of us felt the force of it that night in Gothenburg all those 26 rain-shrouded years ago when even the odd Englishman was invited to raise a beer bottle - the crystal glasses of vintage claret were a long way hence - to salute Aberdeen's improbable slaughter of Real Madrid in the Cup Winners' Cup final.
Although his small, close-knit platoon from the Granite City were still engaged in driving the legions of Rangers and Celtic from the high ground of Scottish football, Fergie was planning greater glories.
That was why he declined an offer of the Ibrox throne. The English game was waiting to be conquered. Manchester was beckoning, and with it the siren call from the peaks of Europe.
Enlarge
The greatest of them all: Sir Alex Ferguson holds aloft the European Cup in Moscow after victory over Chelsea in 2008Could he prevail where so many had failed? Might he even surpass Sir Matt, his beloved mentor? He had given us the answer that dank night in Gothenburg: 'If you want something that bad, so bad that you are willing to give everything inside you, so bad that you almost drive yourself mad (not to mention those around you, Alex) then you can get it.'
Anyone care to argue? Not advisable. Not even when the old grizzly is cornered in the wake of a setback.
While the majority of people at his age are watching the grass grow, Ferguson is still masterminding scorching football blazing with the fires born of the under-class hardships of his Glasgow boyhood.
Now, as a knight of the realm, Sir Alex does not admit to a sense of real poverty pervading the humble Govan home of his late, ship-builder father
Yet it would be unnatural if the grind of his youth had not shaped his work ethic and his respect for money. Just as the brawling alleyways of the Gorbals toughened him for his social battle against inequality.
Thus was Ferguson forged to march at the head of his Aberdeen foot-soldiers, then to inherit the rich earth of Old Trafford.
It is tempting to say that the rest - the escape from the sack with a fraught victory in Nottingham, the 11 English Championships and two European crowns among an unparalleled host of honours - is history.
Enlarge
Hunger: Sir Alex Ferguson, seen here joking with Juande Ramos last week, is 67 going on 55 as he continues to chase honours with Manchester UnitedTempting but not correct. Not when a goodly portion of the rest is yet to come. Not when longevity is a yardstick of greatness.
The man is 67 going on 55. Now, with the wolves at the door, he will be hungrier than ever.
So how the hell can he crank himself up to do it all yet again? For one thing, this natural-born street-fighter is now able to apply all his experience to the enriched condition of the modern game.
Ferguson's managerial span of more than three decades encompasses as many generations of footballers. This, when you come to argue over the accompanying tables of the 10 greatest managers of all time and the best of British, is what distinguishes him from all the rest.
None of the others have adapt ed so cleverly from berating the virtual serfs of the Seventies and Eighties to psycho-analysing the modern game's multi-millionaires.
Where once he singed his footballers with his hair-dryer, he now incites their imagination with lofty ambitions and challenges them with his calls to arms.
It is not for wealth that his teams for the ages have all been prepared to die for him - they could earn similar fortunes elsewhere - it is for his vision of a glory far greater than a few million quid in the bank.
For this fanatic, the bottom line is not the money but how much do you still want the glory?
Like mad in Fergie's case. Like you can't live without it.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1223678/Sir-Alex-Ferguson-lost-spot-Liverpool-public-enemy-No-1-referees-lets-remember---STILL-THE-GREATEST.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0VHnc6QOq