When the Indian civil service was handing out biographies to motivate its senior employees, it opted for the former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson’s over Roy Keane’s.
One of the lessons the civil servants will learn from the updated version of Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography, released this month, is how to deal with disruptive employees like the former United captain Keane – you simply move them on.
No matter how good the player is, and in Keane’s case Ferguson admits he was moulded in his own image, once he began to feel he was bigger than the manager it was a case of – you take the high road off to Celtic and I’ll take the low road and reassert my authority at Manchester United.
This follows a familiar pattern: David Beckham got too big for his boots, got a boot in the face for his troubles and he decamped to Real Madrid.
Fergie doesn’t have much time for sick notes either. He has little sympathy for Owen Hargreaves, who he labels a disappointing signing who lacked the mental fortitude to overcome his many injuries. The senior Indian civil servants will be getting the picture at this stage. Ferguson was and is a product of his upbringing in the working-class district of Govan in Glasgow.
Fergie’s updated version of the book, released a year on from the first, includes his thoughts on David Moyes’ ill-fated spell at Old Trafford. But as well as his latest insights, Ferguson also harks back to his past. As an average centre-forward he idolised the more skilful Denis Law, although he did play at the top level in Scotland for Rangers. Driven by a determination to make a bigger mark in management, he started small at East Stirling and then St Mirren, where he promptly got rid of half the squad.
It was at unfashionable Aberdeen that Ferguson made his mark by breaking the duopoly of Rangers and Celtic and leading the team to a European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1983.
This led him to his personal theatre of dreams at Old Trafford in 1986, where he promptly dismantled the Irish mafia of Paul McGrath, Kevin Moran – too many head wounds – and Norman Whiteside. But he very nearly didn’t survive the early years and it wasn’t until he secured a memorable FA Cup win in a replay with Crystal Palace in 1990 that United began to turn the corner. Infused with local talent such as the Neville brothers, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Beckham, the glory years followed.
In the end, if there is one message the Indian civil service can take from the life and times of Alex Ferguson – it is his sheer doggedness.
q&a making his presence felt
Séamus Buckley reveals more on Alex Ferguson’s managerial style.
Where did David Moyes go wrong?
In the updated autobiography Ferguson says his successor Moyes underestimated the difficulties of managing a club of the magnitude of Man Utd. He should have retained all, or at least some of Ferguson’s management team and this would have given him some stability. Ferguson denies accusations that he left the squad in bad shape – after all, they won the league in his last season. He also denies he hand-picked Moyes.
What has Ferguson being doing since he retired?
Paul McGinley appointed him an honorary captain at the Ryder Cup in Gleneagles in September and he gave the squad a pep talk before the big occasion. Rory McIlroy, being a big Man U fan, was particularly thrilled to have Ferguson involved. The managerial legend was omnipresent throughout the weekend – his beaming smile appearing all over the course in stark contrast to the brooding presence that inhabited the dugout at Old Trafford. In the upshot he proved an effective counterbalance to the presence of the American totem Michael Jordan and Europe won comfortably.
How do Fergie and Keane get along now?
Not particularly well. Keane used his recent autobiography to launch a counteroffensive against Ferguson, suggesting that he began to rest on his laurels and they needed more from him, which ultimately led to Ferguson “tearing up” his contract.
sbuckley@thenational.ae
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