Alex Ferguson
Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBEis a former Scottish football manager and player who managed Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is regarded by many players, managers and analysts to be one of the greatest and most successful managers of all time...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth31 December 1941
CityGovan, Scotland
conference good
This is good for football. Burton have done the Conference proud.
ability behind chelsea crowd game question start
The start of the game will be so important and we need the crowd behind us. The question is can we usurp Chelsea and make them think for a bit? I know we have the ability to do it - and I think everyone else does too.
assess changes david improve player team
But for me it's always going to be about how we can improve the team and nothing changes in that respect. I go to David Gill and say 'this is a player I'd like', then we assess how much it's going to cost.
anyone bit cost defending gamble maybe playing poor singling
Maybe it was a bit of a gamble playing Patrice. I am not singling anyone out. The defending was poor and that is what has cost us the game.
gives good naturally option quick
The deal's done. He gives us a different option in the left-back position. He's naturally left-footed, very quick and he's a good footballer.
player thinking years
Players know that they can trust me which is really important. They know that I had the ability to adapt to change, and they have seen that many times over the years. I think these are important parts of being in control of footballers.
powerful player clubs
I always said to the directors that the minute a player becomes more powerful than the manager of Manchester United, it's not Manchester United. You have lost control of the whole club. So I always made sure that I was in control. They always knew who the manager was.
thinking quality doe
I think that fear does come into it in some respect in the sense of when I lost my temper I didn't hide behind a bush on it in respect to the times that I did lose my temper. But you know the quality that I had when I lost my temper, I never, ever brought it back again.
hurt sorry son
It's a horrible part of the game when you have to tell a player, probably somebody who has helped you win so much that his time is up. You treat them like family, and because they are your family it becomes even more hurting in the sense that you have got to say "well son, I'm sorry, you won't be a regular here, but you will still have a career elsewhere.' It's happened more than a few times but it is not an easy thing to handle.
loyalty believe opportunity
I realized I was good at developing young people. Eventually I started to believe in young people. I think when you give a young person an opportunity, he always believes who gave him his first chance. You create a loyalty that lasts a lifetime.
kids back-when way
I'm a Pele fan from way back when I was a kid, and then there was always this thing later about Pele and Maradona. I was young and impressionable as a kid but it was always Pele for me.
school player average
I was doing all the coaching schools so that I'd be able to stay in the game, and I gave myself a chance by doing that. I was only an average player, could score a goal or two, that sort of thing, but I wasn't a Bobby Charlton or a Messi, or Ronaldo. There are very, very few really great players who have become great coaches.
team league expectations
I never worried about teams who spend what they want to spend. It never bothered me. At the moment we have a lot of Middle Eastern owners, we have American owners of course, Russian owners. It never bothered me one bit. All I was concerned about was that we at United maintained our level of expectation, be competitive, be at the top part of the Premier League.
football determination successful
I do like to try and see myself in football players. Everybody is different and express themselves in different ways. There are different kinds of talents of course and there are many who I would never have had the talent that they have when I was a player. But I still had that determination to be successful and try my best.