Sir Alex Ferguson's ability to play the generation game is vital to Manchester United's phenomenal success
On Monday, a Manchester United side brimming with young talent sent an emphatic message to the Premier League by crushing Tottenham. For the fifth time in his 25-year reign at Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson has produced a new team fit to dominate English football.
Telegraph
By Mark Ogden
10:32PM BST 26 Aug 2011
12 Comments
Here, we reveal the secrets behind Ferguson’s unparalleled ability to regenerate his squad, a special talent which has brought him more trophies than any manager in English football history and leaves him, at 69, looking more powerful than ever.
MILAN MODEL
When Brian McClair was asked about his role at Manchester United alongside emerging youngsters by the name of Beckham, Butt, Scholes and Neville in the autumn of 1995, the then 32-year-old midfielder replied by saying, “I’m just their babysitter.”
McClair, now the director of United’s academy, was only half-joking.
While the fatal flaw in Arsène Wenger’s youth policy at Arsenal appears to have been his readiness to discard seasoned performers once they enter their thirties, leaving the youngsters exposed to the demands of top-level football, United manager Sir Alex Ferguson retains and cajoles his veterans.
From Bryan Robson to Denis Irwin, Laurent Blanc to Ryan Giggs, the United manager has always regarded his senior servants as torch-carriers for the next generation.
Ferguson repeatedly refers to his three-tiered squad – the emerging youngsters, those in their mid-20s and the time-served thirtysomethings – as though it is United’s magic formula, yet simple as it sounds, few Premier League rivals have copied the blueprint, with some clubs top-heavy in one area or understaffed in others.
“I always feel that older players can accept a challenge, maybe once, maybe twice at the most,” Ferguson said. “But you need a mix of energy in the team to go the full distance to win a league.”
At 37, Ryan Giggs has yet to start a game this season, with the energy of Tom Cleverley and newly-arrived enthusiasm of Ashley Young restricting him to the bench, yet if United hit turbulence at Wigan, Stoke or Blackburn, Giggs knows his role.
“I’m experienced enough to know I’m not going to start every game or even play every game,” Giggs said. “But I can contribute to the team, whether it be starting or coming on and using my experience in games.”
Ferguson’s decision to hand Michael Owen a one-year contract at the end of last season points towards his determination to harvest experience and surround his young players with a seen it-done it mentality.
Owen started just one Premier League game last season, but Ferguson’s admiration of AC Milan’s loyalty to the likes of Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta and Clarence Seedorf, and the Italian club’s ability to benefit from carefully-handled experience, has convinced him of the value of blending the likes of Giggs and Owen with the youngsters.
The presence of trophy-winning experience, in Ferguson’s mind, enables self-policing within the dressing room and a natural, but evolving, hierarchy which enables personalities to develop and leaders to emerge.
“A lot of the older players are not there now so you have a young element in the dressing room who are starting to take control of the place.” Ferguson said. “It is interesting.”
MAKE STARS, DON’T BUY THEM
What distinction do Dimitar Berbatov, Teddy Sheringham and Henning Berg share at Manchester United?
Since Eric Cantona’s retirement in 1997, they remain the only outfield players aged 27 or older to have been purchased by Sir Alex Ferguson in 15 years.
Rather than highlighting a quirk of United’s buying policy, that statistic points directly to Ferguson’s philosophy that creating stars, as opposed to importing them ready-made, for substantial fees, is a crucial foundation stone in creating successful teams.
Some might suggest it offers nothing more than proof of the parsimonious nature of United’s owners, the
Glazer family, or the dividend-conscious attitude of the old plc board, yet over the same 15-year period, the club have broken the British transfer record for a 23-year-old Rio Ferdinand, made Wayne Rooney the world’s most expensive teenager and, this summer, invested £16.5 million on 19-year-old Phil Jones.
When David Beckham left Old Trafford for Real Madrid in 2003, rather than meet Ronaldinho’s astronomical wage demands, United instead paid £12 million for an unknown 17 year-old by the name of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Whether it is nurturing home-grown talent such as Beckham, Paul Scholes and Giggs or trawling for the best young players across the globe, potential is the keyword for Ferguson – players who can be moulded to suit United’s demands, those with unsated ambition and a desire to progress.
“We compete in the present, but at the same time, build for the future.” Ferguson said. “I think that is one of the factors that has seen us stay successful for such a long time. On our summer tour of America, we had 14 players aged 22 and under.”
Lee Sharpe, just 17 when he moved to United from Torquay in 1988, was the first signpost of Ferguson’s youth-driven ethos and he recognised the manager’s paternalistic approach to his youngsters.
“When I travelled up from Torquay, I thought United might send a taxi for me or a minor member of the coaching staff,” Sharpe said.
“But when the train pulled into Manchester, I hopped off and there he was, in the forecourt of Piccadilly Station, Alex Ferguson himself.”
Similarly, when Ferguson fought Liverpool for Jones’s signature this summer, a phone call to the player’s mother, Helen, helped clinch the deal.
BE RUTHLESS
The history of Ferguson’s 25-year reign as United manager is littered with victims of his ruthless pursuit of glory.
Jim Leighton, a Ferguson loyalist lured south from Aberdeen, was dropped for an FA Cup final replay, Roy Keane shown the door after being deemed too combustible and the prolific Ruud van Nistelrooy dispensed with after a training-ground row with Ronaldo.
Van Nistelrooy, who claimed earlier this year to have repaired his relationship with the Scot, said: “Two or three times every year I would think to myself what a shame it was that it had ended like it did with Ferguson.”
From the outset at United, when he wasted little time in selling crowd favourites Paul McGrath and Norman Whiteside, and sacking chief scout Tony Collins for failing to spot the potential of John Barnes, Ferguson has swiftly rooted out those he deems unfit for purpose.
“Some people can never make a decision,” Ferguson said. “But having the ability to make a quick decision, is a positive aspect of management.”
Recent months have seen Ferguson’s ruthlessness return. Berbatov, United’s record signing, was left out of the 18-man squad for last May’s Champions League final against Barcelona, while John O’Shea, expecting a new contract at Old Trafford, was sold to Sunderland.
Ferguson said: “When players grow old, their performance level drops, but we have to maintain a level of success at the top end of the game, at all the time.
“We can’t afford bad years or breaking-in years, we need to be successful all the time. Sometimes, when a player grows old, you have to recognise it and they have to move on.”
Ferguson hasn’t always been right, when allowing players to leave Old Trafford.
The Scot has conceded that his decision to sell Jaap Stam to Lazio following the publication of the Dutch defender’s controversial autobiography in 2001 was a mistake.
“It is good that a man like Ferguson dares to admit that he makes mistakes,” Stam said. “It doesn’t surprise me, though. I always knew for myself that United made an error by selling me.”
COMPLETE CONTROL
There are few areas of Manchester United not directly controlled by Ferguson.
In the past, the Scot has ordered a change of kit at half-time in a Premier League game – remember those grey shirts at Southampton? – and introduced white socks, rather than black, for his players on European nights to make team-mates more visible.
Yet micromanagement in those areas is mirrored by delegation in others. His coaches are left to train, the dietitians free to utilise their expertise and innovations, such as the use of optometrists, players adopting yoga and GPS monitoring in training, are welcomed by a man now in his 37th year as a manager.
It might not all be as hands-on as when he submitted the catering order for the food stalls while managing St Mirren, but Ferguson’s level of control marks him out among his Premier League peers. Even chief executive David Gill leaves his Old Trafford office for his Friday meetings with Ferguson at Carrington.
Roberto Mancini might work for the richest club in the world, but the Manchester City manager envies Ferguson‘s iron grip at United.
“It’s important for the manager to have control over the players, medical staff and other situations,” Mancini said. “I agree with Ferguson, but he has been at United for a long time so, for him, it is easy. For me, it’s difficult.”
Mancini’s call for greater control at City highlights the recurring fault-line that has seen Ferguson edge out many of his managerial rivals during his time at Old Trafford.
Kevin Keegan, Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti have all traded blows with Ferguson in the Premier League, but their challenge fizzled out once the men upstairs began to stray too close to the manager’s territory.
Ferguson, described by Alex McLeish as the “Godfather of the football world”. has admitted that the 1990 FA Cup success, his first trophy at United, provided the control he required to push through his agenda at the club.
Six years after the Glazer takeover at Old Trafford, Ferguson remains as powerful as ever before, if not more so, with the American owners sometimes appearing star-struck in their manager’s presence.
When Rooney went public with his demand for a transfer last October, Ferguson took control of keeping the England forward in the knowledge that, regardless of the money his transfer fee would have generated, the Glazers had left him with the ultimate decision.
