The Manager Who Broke the Premier League with No Tactics

Regarded by many fans as the greatest football manager the world's ever seen. When I joined United, they were worth £10 million. They're now worth £2 billion. How did Sir Alex Ferguson get you to keep coming back every single year? All the teams that managed United and do it again. 49 trophies in 36 years. Sir Alex Ferguson is the most successful manager Britain has ever known. So what's his secret? How was he able to remain on top for almost four decades? Well, the more you learn about Sir Alex, the more it makes sense why he was so successful. I would be sitting in my bed or lying in my bed at night thinking about ways of motivating players because if you're at a club like United for 27 years, you don't want players to feel, here we go again. I believe anyway in communication, loyalty and trust. And you give your consideration to them, what the job they're doing, they'll pay you back. Communication was really important to me, recognising value in my staff. The managerial world today is full of elite tacticians. Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta, even Xavi Alonso. But Fergie was the man who realised that what matters most isn't necessarily tactics. Did he rule by fear? Absolutely petrified him. Were you afraid of him? Yeah. Early on in my career, definitely fear. When we do something bad or we lost some games, he kicked the chairs and he kicked the boots, he kicked everything, the waters, the drinks. You can see his footsteps approaching. The hat is gone, the hat is down and then you see the leather shoes coming and then the shoes stop and then it's coming. And he's so red. As a 17-year-old seeing this figure who was so intent on discipline and quality. The real reason for losing your temper is because of expectation. People say I'm ruthless. I'm not ruthless. I'm doing my job for Manchester United. It's unbelievable. It was good because we learned. But it wasn't just fear that Fergie used to get the best out of his players. Fabre figured to me he was just someone who both on and off the pitch you would always turn to. Did you find him scary? No. He's one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life. I don't know, he just knew how to deal with people. He knew how to treat people to get the best out of them for what his main goal was. He knew every player. He knew the ins and outs of every player. He knew the way to speak to the player, how to get a reaction from them. They know they can trust me, they can come to me. Just the way he protects players. I don't think you've ever seen him come out in an interview afterwards and have a go at any of his players. But you also have to stay on the right side of him. You also have to do what he expected you to do. You can smile, but you can be angry too. So let's do the right things. And this knack he had for managing players didn't come from nowhere. 1978. At just 36 years of age, Alex Ferguson joins Aberdeen. Four years after retiring as a player. I'd been a player, a decent player. I didn't win much as a player. But I had this great desire to win. I came to my mind at 32. But with zero experience managing in the First Division, Ferguson's ability to get results didn't come right away. I thought this would be easy. I lost my first away game 5-2. And it was this loss which made Fergie realise something crucial. And I realised then, if I didn't get a winning mentality, a toughness in my players, I would never survive. He's the best sports psychologist the world has ever seen. He understood what it took to win games of football. He could have been the biggest bully in the world. Do we ever call him a bully? No. We called him somebody who pushed us to different levels. He can drive you bonkers at times, but genius. Absolute genius. He takes you from thinking about winning and makes sure you win. And that's what he did. Ferguson did the unthinkable. He helped Aberdeen win the league title. If you beat Rangers and Celtic, you know you're in business. We beat Celtic for the league in 1980. There was a change. This was the first time in 15 years that the league had not been won by either Rangers or Celtic. So it gives you a fair indication of how difficult it was. You know, the record that he had at Aberdeen when Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic are so dominant in that league. He'd taken Aberdeen from an unsuccessful Scottish club to really challenge the might of Rangers and Celtic. And the success didn't stop there. Aberdeen did something unimaginable. They beat Real Madrid in the 1983 Cup Winners' Cup final. Our success at Aberdeen is nothing short of a miracle really. Some people say to me, did you really beat Real Madrid? Seriously? Yeah, we did actually. It was quite amazing. But it was at this point that Ferguson made a massive decision. 1986. Sir Alex Ferguson was appointed manager at Old Trafford. We haven't won the league for 20 years. That is a great challenge for the Manchester United players. And won't be until it's achieved. My family didn't want to go, but I knew I had to go. I had to have the challenge. It was always time for me to move on at some point. I couldn't have picked a better club. This was the ideal club for me, there's no question about that. I won't change. You're all going to have to change. For him, the goal was obvious. There's only one club to beat to win the league, and that's Liverpool. I knew that if you beat Liverpool, you're on the right path. The Fergie you and I know is a serial winner. But at the start, things weren't exactly full of prosperity. Zero trophies in his first three seasons. You have to treat losing as part of the progress. A defeat sparks something inside you that did something about it. It's part of your life. And when it happens, you find yourself. And we'd always try to find the reason why we lost that game. And that purpose and determination is either there or not there. Fans wanted him gone, but United's chairman had differing opinions. We knew how hard Alec Ferguson was working. And we felt that with that sort of effort, that sort of determination, that eventually he would be able to turn it around. He knew what he was trying to achieve, and he just needed that time. And clearly, it paid off. Manchester United are the inaugural winners of the FA Premier League. Manchester United went on to win back-to-back Premier Leagues in 1993 and 1994. You know, I think the 92-93, winning that title, I think that really helped the club to go on and have all the success that they've had under the boss over the last 26 years. You've finally broken that 26-year spell. Do you think you can form a dynasty here in much the same way Sir Matt Busby did? As long as they're hungry, because without hunger, you can never achieve anything. I won't be taking my foot off the pedal. That's not my nature. And I will certainly be looking for my players to lead the way for me. The catalyst to this success was new signing Eric Cantona. He is a table mate for Manchester United. How professional he was, how he put in extra shifts before training, after training, his mentality and professionalism stood out for me. But in 1995, something happened which changed everything. The Croydon magistrate sentenced Eric Cantona to two weeks in jail for his assault on the Crystal Palace supporter. Ferguson was forced to make a difficult choice. Wasn't your first instinct to think, he's blown it? No. There was something in me that said, I need to do something about it, I need to stand by him, because the world is after him. We decided to suspend him for four months. Manchester United has today suspended Eric Cantona. All he wanted was attention, Eric. You know, he wanted attention. He loved to talk about football. But not every player was happy with how he handled things. I'd never seen him have a go at Eric Cantona, for example. Some of the players would resent that, why is he not going to go at Cantona? And the manager would just, almost just let him off the hook. Because we're all different characters, so some people need an arm around them, some people need the hairdryer. The manager knew in the long run that he would come good, that he would produce the goods at the right time. Yeah, his man management was second to none. The fact that he has a different approach with people, that shows how good he is at his job. Special treatment or not, there's no denying that his methods resulted in immense success in the 90s. Cantona had reinforcements, called the Class of 92. You could see right from the start that there was talent. Some of the football we were playing was sort of, you know, unbelievable. We knew we had quite a good team because we were successful. You knew where you stood. If you weren't pulling your weight, he'd have you. And that was every single day. Even when you were a teenager? Of course, yeah, when you were a teenager, yeah. Like I say, you have to have a manager who's willing to give you a chance, and he couldn't wait to give us a chance. And hopefully we paid him back. So giving people, young people, an opportunity is a fantastic thing. And they very seldom let you down. These lads never let me down. Five league titles, including a historical treble, made it clear to everyone that Liverpool were no longer top dog. Alex Ferguson, surely, soon to be Sir Alex Ferguson, has realised the dream. Little did he know, there was another manager soon going to give him his biggest test yet. I arrived 96, 1st October. Arsenal were pretty average for a period of time before he came. All of a sudden, Petit, Overmars, Vieira. It was all Wenger. It was everybody he knew. You have to sacrifice your life for this job. Alex Ferguson was thinking, who's this guy that's coming, thinking he's going to come up and start doing it. Arsene Wenger's been in Japan. He doesn't know anything about English football. He was the guy to beat. He was a don. I thought that's a good opportunity for me to show that it's not only English, that you know how to play football. Wenger stayed true to his word. Arsenal snatched away three of the next eight available league titles. We were starting to get close. It was brilliant rivalry. That rivalry was like three titles, four titles, and then the off the pitch stuff, and then the ferocity with the managers. That was a proper rivalry. That's a rivalry. So you push each other. Managers push each other. The players push each other. To make matters worse, the Gunners made history in 2004 by going invincible. Everyone loves Arsenal. Look at the football that they're playing, lads. Everyone's praising them, and it was hurting us every single day. Fergie knew that only his team could end their reign of terror, and in October, they did exactly that. A good night for the club, and as you say, it's only onward and upward from here. Hopefully, yeah, it's a good start for us. Hopefully we can get on a run now. Arsenal have since failed to capture the coveted Premier League trophy, but this pursuit to win the war against them came at a massive cost. The scenario with Joaquin, there was a video that he'd done on MUTV that the club didn't want to go out. The manager thought that it wasn't right. It was disrespectful, et cetera, to the team. For one reason or another, he decided to go and criticise his teammates. What did he want me to say? That the team played well? I said, listen, poor. The team was poor. But this idea that I was ranting and raving, again, usual nonsense. I had a chance to watch it with the players before I left, and it was fine. It was building up, it was building up. There were things happening where you could see this moment was sort of coming. The next day, I told the players that Joaquin would never come back to Man United again. He was captain of Man United. For Roy, he overstepped his mark. Absolutely overstepped his mark, and there was no other thing we could do. Fergie axed Keane from the team after criticising his teammates in an MUTV appearance. No, I wouldn't forgive Ferguson for that. If I want to analyse it, I think we really bought, loved and wanted to do what was best for Man United, and there was huge respect between us. Unfortunately, that was probably lost at the end. Roy Keane wasn't the only player to fall out with the gaffer. In the flying boot, they hit David Beckham. I think the manager had a go at him or something for not tracking back. Beck said something back, and I think it was an accident. That is an incident which was a freakish. If I tried it a hundred times and a million times, it could not happen again. He fell in love with Victoria. That changed everything, I think. And being a football man, I had to think about my own control of the club and where we were going with that. To get on the wrong side of him, it's not a nice side to see of him. Fergie sold Beckham to Real Madrid later that year. And as Keane moved on to Celtic, United started to flounder. No league title in three seasons. Many began wondering, was this the end of Fergie's dominance? But it's here where we find out that Ferguson isn't afraid of adversity. If anything, it makes him stronger. His relentless need for success and have that desire to do better and to make sure that we don't stand still. I like to see myself in the players. And of course, when I lost a game, you know how I reacted. He was everywhere. Just that force of energy and ambition and drive then lifted the whole club. Breaking through at the perfect moment was a certain winger called Cristiano Ronaldo. CR7 and Ferguson shared the same ambition to succeed. What's going to happen? Still Ronaldo! It was a match made in heaven. United won three league titles in a row and another Champions League to add to the cabinet. Still motivated to win trophies, to go to the trainings. With 62 years old, 63, 64, 65. You see he's still angry, still wants one more title. He still wants that team to play good every weekend. I think at the moment he's the best player in the world. But in 2011, Ferguson did something even more special for the club. The Devils will break Liverpool's record of 18 Premier League titles. Liverpool will entirely knock off their perch for the moment. 12 Premier League titles. Can you believe it? I know. I can't. Manchester United officially had more league titles than arch-rivals Liverpool. But as we learn time and time again about Fergie's career, adversity was always around the corner. The expectation now is a completely different ballgame. Every season we come in with the expectation that we're going to win the league. With new ownership, Man City looked to do what Arsenal couldn't. Dethrone Fergie's United. We have a neighbour, and sometimes neighbours are noisy. But you can't do any better. And as of next year, we're young enough to do it again. You've seen off Liverpool, you've seen off challenges from Arsenal, you've seen off challenges from Chelsea. Does this reinvigorate you now, this new rivalry? So we accept challenges, we're good at that. We've been doing it for a long time. So, what better way to defend their throne than to sign Arsenal's main man? Robin van Persie is finally set to leave Arsenal, after agreeing to join Manchester United. But the fact is, is that Arsenal never offered me a deal. So I looked around, and then towards the end of that process, I had two options with City and Manchester United, and Manchester United gave me the best feeling. Sir Alex gave me the best feeling, I really wanted to win. Manchester United, commanding position, Liverpool creeping. Falling away, Manchester City 12 points behind Manchester United. Can they close the gap, James, 11 games to go? Absolutely not. Manchester United now, wow, so far ahead. Man U and Sir Alex goes out the only way you would expect Sir Alex to go out. With a win? At the very end. Robin van Persie fit the team like a glove, winning the golden boot with ease, as Ferguson secured his 13th league title. I had to wait for so long for my first title, and it's a great feeling. It's a thank you to Manchester United. Not just the directors, not just the medical staff, the coaching staff, the players, the support, it's all of you. Thank you, thank you. When you do retire, what would you like them to say about Alex Ferguson? I'd be happy that they recognised the work I've done in the club, and I would hope their contribution will be recognised in it. Their attitude should be, I've got my chance, I'm in this world, I'm going to succeed.