Sir Alex Ferguson

I recently celebrated my 24^th birthday, which means that I was just a twinkle in my mother’s eye when Sir Alex Ferguson took over from Ron Atkinson to manage Manchester United 26 years ago in November of 1986. This also means that I have been bought up only knowing SAF at the reigning helms of the (best) club (in the world) so you can imagine my absolute horror when on Wednesday the 8^th of May it was confirmed that Sir Alex was stepping down from his managerial role and retiring.

I, along with my brother, have been bought up supporting Man United (although he took a little time out to support Liverpool, much to my Dad’s dismay. Although thankfully, after half a season he saw sense and returned to be a red devil.) Now, yes I have lived in Bournemouth (until two years ago) my entire life and no I have never lived in Manchester but my Grandad was born and raised there, subsequently my Dad was bought up supporting them and so the trend continued on to Liam and I. And even if it this wasn’t the case, I’m pretty certain that I’d be a United fan anyway: it’s the best football club in the world for goodness sake, why would you support anyone else?

Anyway, there had been talk of Fergie retiring on Tuesday 7^th of May and it worried me, immensely. I was quick to BBM my Dad and as we looked into it, it seemed more and more likely to be viable, even though just a few days before (4^th May) he had said “This team of champions is not going away - we are here for the long ride. We will get better and if we apply ourselves in our normal fashion I see our 20th league title as nothing but the start of another decade of success. Whether I will be here to oversee another decade of success remains to be seen, but I certainly don't have any plans at the moment to walk away from what I believe will be something special and worth being around to see." Which is technically true, as he will remain at the club as Director and Club Ambassador. Never the less it wasn’t at all nice to hear his retirement being confirmed on Wednesday morning when United released a statement saying "The most successful manager in English football history will bow out after the West Bromwich Albion game on 19 May and join the football club board." I was crushed.

People were very quick to take to Twitter (no surprise there!) and there were numerous hash tags trending #thankyousiralex #greatestever etc. David Beckham spoke out and called him a “father figure” Cristiano thanked him for his time at Man United, Rio Ferdinand said his work ethic and desire to win helped them all become better players and Michael Owen said what a privilege it had been to have played under arguable the best manager the world has ever seen, along with countless other players, ex-players, managers, friends, and supporters all wishing him well and thanking him for such a brilliant 26 years. I will personally miss the way you very rarely see him not chewing gum, the way he jumps for joy and fist pumps when we score an important goal, his fiery temper and how he yells at the lines men, the way he always gets “Fergie time” and if I’m honest I’m also pretty gutted that he never threw a hairdryer at me. Sigh.

Love him or loathe him there is no denying Sir Alex’s raw talent as a football manager and it is simply astonishing to read through his managerial record of achievements. I mean which other manager can say that they have helped their club win a total of 38 trophies? That’s 13 Premier League’s, 10 Shield’s, 5 FA Cup’s: 4 League Cup’s, 2 Uefa Champions League, a Fifa Club World Cup, a Uefa Super Cup, a Uefa Cup Winners Cup and an Inter-Continental Cup.

His very first match as manager was played on November 8^th in 1986 against Oxford in which Man U lost 2-0 (wtf?!) and his 1500^th game will be played next week against West Brom on the 19^th May 2013. I’ve just watched his 1499^th game against Swansea, which ended 2-1 to Man United thanks to a very late goal from Rio.  It was also his last home match and saw him walk through the Old Trafford tunnel for the final time to a guard of honour and a standing ovation from the crowd, as well as the match in which we were re-awarded the Premier League trophy (it’s back where it belongs, on the red side of town!) and it was absolutely brilliant to see him life that trophy with such pride. What a brilliant home send off, which he undoubtedly deserves.

I’m going to leave you with my favourite of all the statistics that have come out since the news of his retirement and that is that after managing 1499 games he only lost 267: what an achievement. 

And with that, I guess all that’s left to say is quite simply: “Thanks Boss.”

Whilst writing this blog Piers Morgan also took the twitter and said “Sir Alex Ferguson has been the greatest coach/manager in any sport, anywhere in the world. Hurts to admit it, but true.” For once Piers, I’m actually going to have to agree with you! Nicely said.