Fergie surely will still pick his time to pack it in
David Lacey
Saturday March 26, 2005
It has been strange and a little unnerving to find the words "Ferguson" and "sack" appearing in the same head-lines.
Even one that declares "Ferguson safe from the sack" leaves the uncomfortable feeling the game is more intent than ever on devouring its legends.
Football managers are being fired all the time but at Old Trafford this is surely the shove that dares not speak its name. Under Alex Ferguson Manchester United have won eight Premiership titles, the FA Cup five times, the Champions League, the Cup Winners' Cup and the League Cup.
They have also become the richest club in the world and now possess the biggest and best league football stadium in Britain. The cash, more-over, has been generated by the team's performances and the resulting commercial and TV spin-offs.
Unlike Chelsea United did not suddenly strike Russian oil, they dug deep, hard and long for their crock of gold. Ferguson's future as Manchester United manager was always going to be finite, if only on grounds of advancing age. He is now 63 and had intended to retire at 60 until his family, plus his own lasting enthusiasm, persuaded him to stay on.
Early in 2002 Ferguson's position at Old Trafford was as strong as ever. Having completed a league hat-trick United were heading for a record-breaking fourth successive championship. A second Champions League triumph also appeared well within the team's capabilities.
Then, bit by bit, some of the old assumptions began to evaporate. That season Arsenal pipped Manchester United to win the Premiership and Bayer Leverkusen beat them on away goals in the Champions League semi-finals.
The flying boot kicked across the dressing room by an angry manager, which accidentally left David Beckham with a cut eyebrow and is still regarded by some as the moment when Ferguson's powers began to wane, was still nearly a year away but already his change of heart on quitting when ahead was looking questionable.
Yet so long as Manchester United were qualifying for the Champions League on an annual basis the threat to Ferguson 's position was prompted more by speculation than reality. He survived a long-running feud with the club 's two major shareholders, JP McManus and John Magnier, over a racehorse's stud fees and was left untouched when the pair queried his football agent son Jason's involvement with some transfer deals.
Nevertheless once Ferguson's contract expires at the end of June he will be on a 12-month rolling agreement that will be reviewed, by both club and manager, on an annual basis. Add to this the likelihood that United are about to go two seasons with-out the title for the first time since the Premier League was born in 1992 and the fact that once again they have made minimal progress in the knockout stage of the Champions League, and the possibility of Ferguson leaving at a moment not of his choosing is less unthinkable.
The news that pre-tax profits at Old Trafford have fallen by more than 50%to £12.4m was no surprise given the down payment on the £27m spent on Wayne Rooney.
United now need not one but two competent goalkeepers as well as a replacement for Roy Keane and will have to sell to buy knowing that Chelsea can outbid and outspend them at will.
Hence the stir created when, in a BBC Radio Five Live interview, David Gill, United 's chief executive,conceded that even Fergie was dismissable. "He is sackable," said Gill. "We live in a pressurised sport."
Nevertheless when it comes to pressure Ferguson is fortunate in his employers. United 's fellow aristocrats on mainland Europe would have given him much shorter shrift, not so much for failing to win the national league but for consistently coming up short in the Champions League.
In the six seasons since Manchester United won the European Cup they have won only one tie at the knockout stage.Their record in two-leg encounters is :P14 W3 D4 L7. If ever they failed to qualify for the competition proper it would be the financial equivalent of relegation back home. Gill bleeped like a reversing HGV when his radio comments hit the headlines.
Replacing Ferguson, "has not even entered our psyche at the moment", he said. At the moment? Hmmmmm ...
Fergie surely will not be sacked. He will still pick his time to pack it in. But even the best managers can stay on too long. Stan Cullis outlived his long-ball era at Wolves, Bill Nicholson became disillusioned trying to recreate Tottenham's Double-winning team in a greedier, more cynical football age and Brian Clough's successful years with Nottingham Forest ended in booze, tears and relegation.
None of which should apply to Ferguson.Yet he will not need telling that in football fame is ephemeral and today's results matter more than yesterday's glory. And sooner rather than later, maybe at the end of next season, he will again feel he has had enough - and this time mean it.
Meanwhile United supporters must be having nightmares about a Fergie-less Manchester United owned by Malcolm Glazer, the elderly American non-fan whose repeated bids for the club keep cropping up like mouth ulcers.
). i'm not understand why fergie push him to become a defendsive midfielder, playing out of favorite position is one of the reason that he can't perform in this season.
