There is a story, now glorified in myth, that on Bobby Robson’s 70th birthday some years ago, Sir Alex Ferguson claimed there would be “no bloody chance” he would still be working at the same age. It was an assertion the Manchester United manager repeated in 2008. Now, nearly a decade after Ferguson announced his [...]
Friday, November 11, 2011
It has become a truism that international breaks are dull, and there are far too many of them. That FIFA bigwigs, holed up in their Zürich glass box, deigned yet another one take place this November – the third of the current season – is testament to the battle raging in football between the club [...]
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Sir Alex Ferguson celebrates his 25th anniversary in charge of Manchester United on Sunday 6 November. In a remarkable period, Ferguson has overseen United’s triumph in 36 trophies. But, turning 70 in December, Ferguson’s clock is ticking towards its inevitable end. The great Scot says that, health permitting, he’ll last another three seasons, but who [...]
Sunday, November 6, 2011
“I am not really interested in what has happened here in the past,” said Alex Ferguson in his first programme notes as manager of his new club in 1986. “I don’t mean any disrespect to the great achievements of Manchester United over the years. It’s simply that now there is only one way to go, and [...]
Friday, November 4, 2011
There is, of course, so much that has already been written about Sir Alex Ferguson. In this week when Ferguson’s tenure in charge at Old Trafford reaches 25 years the column inches will again be filled, mostly, with praise for a remarkable quarter-century in Manchester. Ferguson reaches the landmark having secured thirty six trophies, used [...]
Sunday, October 23, 2011
It was, said Sir Alex Ferguson, the worst result of a 50-year career in football. Manchester City’s 6-1 victory at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon brought the Blues three vital points in the Premier League title race and total humiliation for the Scot’s side in its own back yard. Defeat to City in last season’s [...]
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
There are moments in “Red”, Gary Neville’s autobiography, when you are reminded what an absolutely extraordinary career he, his brother and – as he never fails to refer to them – “Butty, Becks, Giggsy and Scholesey” had together. In the second batch of photographs included there is an image, captured in the dressing room before [...]
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Robert Johnson, so legend has it, was fulfilled with such an overwhelming desire to become a blues guitarist that by instruction, and on the stroke of midnight, he met with the devil at a remote crossroads. Johnson learned to play a six string with such mastery he was able to create the music for which [...]
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
If anyone needed proof that the current Manchester United side is superior to its north London rivals, then Sunday’s 8-2 demolition of Arsenal provided it. Even taking into account the multiple absences in the Gunners’ squad, the result offered a stark demonstration of the gulf in quality between Sir Alex Ferguson’s squad and that of [...]
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Sir Alex Ferguson has done it again; the 69-year-old Manchester United manager has created a new tactical template, with players to go with it. United’s formation this season might nominally be a traditional 4-4-2, yet the deployment is anything but ordinary. Two, not one, strikers drop deep as wingers push forward. With no dedicated holding [...]
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Sunday, January 1, 2012
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