the ferguson autobiography: a life in content

Running pubs was hard work. By 1978 I was ready to escape the onerous responsibilities that came with running two watering holes.

I had people who were 100 per cent Alex Ferguson. Examples would be Les Kershaw, Jim Ryan and Dave Bushell. I brought Les in in 1987. He was one of my best-ever signings.

When Carlos came over to England in 2002 to speak to us, I was waiting for him in my tracksuit. Carlos was immaculately dressed. He has that suaveness about him.

Great entertainment. Schmeichel had a physical prowess.

David thought he was bigger than Alex Ferguson. There is no doubt about that in my mind. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Alex Ferguson or Pete the Plumber. The name of the manager is irrelevant

It’s an indictment of England teams at youth level that so many have fallen back on this outdated tactic. Too many played long ball. On one occasion we made a point of monitoring Tom Cleverley in the U-21s against Greece, and our scouts reported that England played one up, with two wide – Cleverley being one of the wide players – and Tom didn’t get a kick. Chris Smalling played and kept launching the ball forward. This is the area where England were always likely to be caught out. Because they don’t have enough technical and coaching ability, the years from 9 to 16 are thrown away.

I spoke to Rio’s mother right away because the poor woman was in bits. We could feel devastated by the loss of an important player, but it is the mother who will carry the real weight of such a punishment.

You have to make your mark. As Big Jock said to me about players: Never fall in love with them, because they’ll two-time you.

There was a music company, a film, a TV production company and a magazine that took him to America to interview P Diddy. ‘Give me a break, Rio,’ I said when I heard he was going to meet that star of the American rap scene.

In the dressing room, Van der Sar was very emphatic about performances. He had a strong voice, a Dutch voice. ‘No messing about here!’ he would bark.

On the way home from our trip to America, we stopped in Newfoundland to refuel, at a tiny outpost. Only a single hut marked the landscape. As we waited for the refuelling, the cabin crew opened the door to let fresh air in and a small boy was standing at the fence, alone with a United flag. We weren’t allowed to disembark. We could stand on the steps but not the tarmac, so all we could do was wave to this little United fan, pressed against a fence in the middle of nowhere.

When we were embroiled in an argument once, Roy said to me, ‘You’ve changed.’

I replied, ‘Roy, I will have changed, because today is not yesterday. It’s a different world we’re in now. We have players from twenty different countries in here. You say I’ve changed? I hope I have. I would never have survived if I hadn’t changed.’

In terms of recruitment targets, Carlos fancied Anderson strongly.

That personal connection drew me deeper in. I started going to auctions. A lad from America who had read about my interest in the subject sent me the autopsy report. I kept a couple of photographs at the training ground – one I bought in an auction, and another that was given to me. I also bought the Warren Commission report signed by Gerald Ford at auction. That cost me $3,000.

He also taught his butler how to make a fire that would last an hour longer, how to construct it that way. And he was a billionaire.

Van Nistelrooy followed the trusted route to Dr Richard Steadman in Colorado and was out for almost a year. He returned towards the tail end of that season and we signed him in 2001, after I had been to watch him against Ajax. His mobility was not impaired and his pace had not diminished. He wasn’t the quickest striker; he was a galloper who had a quick brain in the penalty box

galloper who could finish, magnier told me

THE first time I recognised José Mourinho as a potential threat was at his opening press conference as Chelsea manager in the summer of 2004.

In the same month that Roy Keane left the club, in November 2005, we lost George Best. He was a very nice bloke, George, a very gentle lad, a bit nervous, somehow. Nervous to talk to you. He had an insecurity about him that worried you. I remember sitting in a bar in Japan with him once – he was with a girlfriend – and he could hardly talk. He seemed gripped by shyness.

Even Patrice Evra, in that high-pitched way, said to me one day: ‘Boss, did you have William Prunier?’

Apparently Benítez came to our training ground as a guest of Steve McClaren, but I don’t remember meeting him.

After the win in Rome, Guardiola said: ‘We’re fortunate to have the legacy of Johan Cruyff and Charly Rexach. They were the fathers and we’ve followed them.’

What I could never quite understand is how their players were able to play that number of games. They fielded almost the same side every time.

this is worth reading and most of its faults lie with that tonedeaf pleb hayward rather than ferguson

there are longueurs where he goes through the usual vendetta checklist, almost all of which are overfamiliar but the takedowns of rival teams' players are usually good, and naturally the technical stuff and his evaluations of his own players are the most enlightening

there are some passages like that about barcelona which suggest sotto voce innuendi but he has the plausible denialibility of employing such a shitty hack to write the thing

there are a few too many attributions of the force of his character deriving from his tough glasgow roots etc, but that's the origin myth that works for him

ferguson says moyes shares those roots but he doesn't seem to have the his vindictiveness, cleverness or fervid will-to-power and it's almost as if he were subconsciously chosen to highlight those aspects of his character that have the least to do with the happenstance of his upbringing

Running pubs was hard work. By 1978 I was ready to escape the onerous responsibilities that came with running two watering holes.

this reads like the sort of shit i post on youtube music videos and sign "pat o'rourke, wexford". it just needs an extra paragraph that says "my brother joe was hit by a truck in 1981 and died instantly."

see, all this nonsense about your magnum opus going public for the writing thread and you could knock out 500 words as fergie or indeed pat o'rourke in twenty mins that would be well worth a read imo

"Alex, ever tire of dual pub ownership?"

"No, though I do long to escape the onerous responsibilities that come with running two watering holes."

typically excellent review by david runciman

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n01/david-runciman/fergie-time

there are a few too many attributions of the force of his character deriving from his tough glasgow roots etc, but that's the origin myth that works for him

ferguson says moyes shares those roots but he doesn't seem to have the his vindictiveness, cleverness or fervid will-to-power and it's almost as if he were subconsciously chosen to highlight those aspects of his character that have the least to do with the happenstance of his upbringing

― Congress Poland (nakhchivan), Saturday, 26 October 2013 11:06 (10 months ago)

just about every set of warm words directed at louis van gaal when he was appointed contrasted his confidence and authority with moyes at his inaugural press conference when he admitted to being terrified by the prospect of his new job and took it because ferguson told him to, as well as generally seeming like a borderline imbecile who spoke nothing but cant

even so it didnt stop them from repeating the 'cast in the image of his tough glasgow predecessor' dogshit for months therefter