Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson, a name synonymous with the success that has created the modern footballing behemoth of Manchester United, was born into the humble surroundings of 1940s Glasgow and grew up to become a modest professional footballer with St Johnstone and Rangers (amongst others) before setting out on the managerial career for which he has become so well-known.
So remarkable has Ferguson’s success been at Old Trafford over the last 24 years, his previous feats with St Mirren and Aberdeen have unfortunately been somewhat eclipsed. Starting his managerial career with East Stirlingshire at the age of 32 following his retirement as a player in 1974, Ferguson was convinced to join St Mirren by Willie Cunningham and Jock Stein after just a few months with The Shire.
It was to be with St Mirren that Ferguson established his reputation as one of Britain’s best young coaches, taking The Saints from their status as a relatively nondescript Second Division club to First Division champions in just three seasons. In Ferguson’s first full season in charge – the 1975/76 campaign – St Mirren finished sixth in the second tier with a relatively unspectacular record and a goal difference of zero.
However, just a season later the Love Street outfit showed signs of the newfound strength and confidence they had gained under Ferguson’s tutelage. With an astonishingly low average age of just 19, their brand of attractive passing football saw The Saints dominate the Second Division in 1976/77 and comfortable secure promotion to the Scottish Premier League.
The following campaign saw St Mirren’s young team narrowly escape the drop after a prolonged battle against relegation, an impressive achievement in itself, but behind the scenes Ferguson’s relationship with club chairman Willie Todd had dramatically worsened. Towards the end of the season Todd presented Ferguson with a list of ways – nearly all of which he still contests – in which the manager had breached his contract with the club, most of them involving disciplinary issues. Ferguson was promptly sacked, the only time he has ever been dismissed from a managerial post.
After attempting (and failing) to sue the club for wrongful dismissal, Ferguson took on the vacant managerial position at Aberdeen in the June of 1978 and set about transforming the club into a genuine force on both the domestic and European stages. His first season at Pittodrie was fairly underwhelming, The Dons – who had finished second the previous year – only managing a fourth-place finish to go with appearances in the semi-final of the Scottish FA Cup and the final of the League Cup.
As was the case with St Mirren, it was during his second season at the helm that Ferguson made a decisive and dramatic change to Aberdeen’s fortunes and its history. In 1979/80 Aberdeen pipped Celtic to the Premier Division title by just a solitary point, spurred on by the bewitching performances of a young Gordon Strachan on the wing. Despite missing out on the title a year later Ferguson’s Aberdeen were back to winning ways in 1982 with a Scottish Cup triumph before an astonishing Scottish Cup and Cup Winners Cup double in 1983.
Aberdeen claim the 1983 Cup Winners Cup
The European success – which culminated in a 2-1 extra time victory over Real Madrid – was, before his time with Manchester United, Ferguson’s crowning achievement. Having clearly demonstrated his supreme managerial talent, the Scot left Aberdeen to join Manchester United in 1986 after Ron Atkinson’s sacking with The Dons established as one of the Scottish Premier League’s eminent forces.
Appointed at Old Trafford in the November of 1986, Ferguson’s tenure in Manchester didn’t start with the relentless success he has since come to be defined by. He had inherited a club with a strong drinking culture and what was rumoured to be a rather poor work ethic, the new manager being concerned that talented players such as Paul McGrath and Bryan Robson were squandering their careers with off-field excesses. A 2-0 defeat to Oxford United in Ferguson’s first game in charge did not bode well as the Red Devils stumbled to an eleventh place finish.
Ferguson’s first English title may not have come until the 1992/93 season, but all the while he was laying plans, changing the internal culture at the club and steadily constructing the team that would go on to dominate domestic football during the early 1990s. Mark Hughes, Steve Bruce and Viv Anderson all joined the club in 1987 and quickly improved United’s fortunes as they finished second to Liverpool in Ferguson’s second season. A very disappointing campaign was to follow in 1989/90 – the closest the Scot has ever come to losing his job at Old Trafford – before an FA Cup triumphed salvaged United’s pride.
It may not have been a particularly smooth start to life in Manchester for Ferguson, but as soon as the first title arrived – in the inaugural season of the Premier League – he didn’t look back. A master of refreshing his team season after season, Ferguson continually added to his squad players of a remarkable calibre. The likes of Roy Keane, Eric Cantona and Andy Cole all arrived at Old Trafford during the mid-1990s and had an enormous impact on the club, United steamrollering their way to four titles in six years.
1999: United make history with the treble
One of the main features of Ferguson’s time at Old Trafford has been the effective way in which he has nurtured young talent, a policy that paid dividends during the 1998/99 season which saw United claim an historic treble – Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League – inspired by a maturing generation of youth players including David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers.
It was during that season that Manchester United were at their imperious best under Ferguson, the team perfectly balanced in all departments all the way from Peter Schmeichel in goal through to Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke’s prolific strike partnership. The late drama of the Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich was a fitting tribute to the excellent football and fighting spirit of what has gone down as one of the greatest British teams of all time.
It would have been easy for Ferguson to rest on his laurels after the treble but again he set about regenerating his squad. The early 2000s saw another three league titles claimed with a new generation of players including Rio Ferdinand and Ruud van Nistelrooy coming to the fore and continuing the club’s domestic dominance. A brief barren spell in the league beset the club between 2003 and 2006 before United emphatically returned to form during the 2006/07 season
Indeed, the late 2000s, with his team spearheaded by Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, was to be prove yet another glittering period in Ferguson’s career. Demonstrating an increasing tactical flexibility “Fergie” guided his team to three consecutive league titles and, in 2008, another Champions League triumph as Chelsea were beaten on penalties in the final in Moscow. Despite occasional rumours that the Scot was soon to retire resurfacing intermittently throughout the last decade, United’s recent achievements have shown that Ferguson is as capable as ever and just as astute in his tactical strategy and development of young players.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s success in British football is unmatched and his legacy continues to grow at an astounding rate. A true managerial great.
The Equaliser 
Cant believe he is not in the Top 2 never mind the top 10 but that is what opinion is all about and makes this series so interesting.
Born in the same City as myself kind of makes him easier to understand and support. The man done amazingly well with Aberdeen. A man of principles.
But this man seems to build a top team, dismantle it, start again then rebuild an even better side.
He could have been higher up, but this series isn’t all about weight of silverware, more an exercise in trying to find the managers who have most impacted on the development of the game and the art of management itself.
Ferguson is clearly an exceptional manager but – and you’re right, it’s a matter of opinion – I wouldn’t say much of what he has done has been particularly revolutionary or visionary, he’s a master of the basics and very good at what he does.
Dare I say he is the slightly visionary in his mind game techniques?
But as I say its all about opinions, if the series were predictable or just the same choices as myself then I wouldn’t be half as interested as I am.
Keep up the great work.
Master of the basics?
Don’t think you could undermine the great man even more if you tried.
I meant that wholly as a compliment. Over-complicating management can have disastrous consequences. Ferguson has implemented a simple but effective structure at Manchester United which has worked wonders.
as an Aberdeen fan I have always believed his achievements with the Dons to stand as high as any – you missed the 2 further league titles and 2 more Scottish cups he added but hey…what he has achieved at Old Trafford is astonishing.
You allude to it in mentioning the treble winning season he had but THAT is his defining quality, he has always brought through players, nurtured and trusted homegrown talent, the Aberdeen team that dominated was virtually all home grown and even to do this day a Utd team will generally have a home grown player in it.
Should be at least top 5…
Ferguson’s consistency and determination have been described to the point of cliche, but his willingness to adapt to modern sports science and his tactical flexibility tend to be overlooked when the hagiographies are written. Having said that, his real gift has always been the knack of picking hungry players and seeing when they begin to lose that drive – this is what makes him stand out amongst his contemporaries. It isn’t revolutionary though, and it hasn’t influential – it’s too difficult to learn.
Also, it stands to reason that the earlier a manager practised the more he had the opportunity to revolutionise the game. Quibbling about Ferguson’s position is a bit pointless.
Good article, thanks.
Meant to add, it’s interesting that Ferguson has never used a Makelele/Mascherano style midfielder, depite the fashion for one. The regular calls from fans to do so, and the annual predictions of decline from journalists when he doesn’t do so, show how few people look at what Ferguson actually does. Like you say, the basics – he trusts his defenders to defend and his midfielders to use the ball.
This is slightly arsey! Ferguson has consistently won major honours via the medium of attractive, expansive football and usually with a core of players developed from within the club or brought into the club early in their careers. His is probably has the been doing this for a longer period of time than any other manager mentioned in this list.
He’s obvious amoung the top managers ever to be produced in Europe and were he Italian, Spanish or German you would be creaming yourselves over him.
Deano, if you read the precis to the series you would have found that I explain that it isn’t all about weight of trophies, it’s more to do with the significance of the tactical and developmental changes the managers in question have made to the game. Ferguson is clearly an absolutely brilliant manager, but please given me an example of a truly unique development he has brought about in the game.
As for your ridiculous point about favouritism towards ‘Continental’ managers, I think you will find that four of the top ten (including #1) are British.
also, not to quibble, but you’re hopelessly underestimating his influence. under him, united basically invented the premier league, first making themselves a force, and then raising the standards all round by having everyone chase them. add to that that his players have gone on to fill the managerial spots across the various divisions different leagues, taking the Ferguson/united ethos out into the greater football world in some or other fashion, and its obvious that the runaway success of the premier league has been built on the back of then united phenomenon, whether your stance was to love them or hate them. (that and the fact that English is the international lingua franca, of course).
united dominated everyone’s thinking and changed the landscape of football in England, as well as raising its profile outside England. La Liga is often more attractive, for example, but Premiership support internationally makes La Liga look like it doesn’t exist. and that counts – it raises the profile of the game, and its revenues.
both have had an enormous contributory effect to everything football-related everywhere over the last 20 years. and at the heart of all this is Alex Ferguson. he might not have contributed to tactics or strategy or form or game shape or methodology, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone else more influential (directly, through his relationships with other managers, through his mentoring of younger coaches and managers and through his teams’ play) on world football in the last two decades.
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well I am not pretty sure if he is between top 20 all -time, I am souht american and I prefer Tele Sanatan and Menotti, also I do not have too much knowledege about Premier League because nobody in South America acre about it ( it is the 4 most watvehd league behing La Liga , Serie A and Bundesliga here) also has a odd football stlye many people here make jokes about its stlye, but if british believe in its hyped Anglophile worls (USA , Asia, OZ , adn Africa, which a null knowledge about football) is okay
Even if you don’t accept English football as being particularly strong, something I would dispute, then you’d surely still have to accept that Ferguson’s continual success in the Champions League (5 quarter-finals, 2 semi-finals, 3 finals, 2 victories) would suggests that he’s not half bad…
Sergio, good luck with the enormous success of south american football. we’re trembling in its shadow, everywhere else.
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It\’s always a pleasure to hear from someone with eexprtise.
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