The Times - Matt Dickinson …
THE breathtaking football produced by Manchester United on Saturday will have to be sustained a good while longer — and certainly beyond a tumultuous meeting with Chelsea on November 26 — before Sir Alex Ferguson starts dishing out the world’s largest humble pie. But he must be tempted to start shopping for the ingredients. The diners will be all those who speculated that Ferguson was condemning himself to a wretched end at Old Trafford by staying into his 65th year and there is no shame in admitting to being one of them. The list, which included some with strong allegiances to United and to the Scot himself, was long and distinguished.
It even included one of Ferguson’s few allies in the press box who once wrote that the frequency with which the United manager’s career had been obituarised highlighted “the prevalence in my trade of immunity to embarrassment”. Yet even the great Hugh McIlvanney concluded his piece with what amounted to a plea for Ferguson to stand down before he was knocked out by younger men.
“Eventually there comes a moment when the best and bravest of fighters shouldn’t answer the bell,” McIlvanney wrote almost a year ago. United had just lost to Benfica, exiting their Champions League group with the wooden spoon, and that bell appeared to be tolling at the end of Ferguson’s long and remarkable career.
Perhaps McIlvanney will have a piece of the pie if Ferguson keeps his revitalised United on the top of the Barclays Premiership. No doubt he would happily dine on it and Ferguson would be surprised how many other willing eaters he would find in Fleet Street.
No one likes to be proved wrong, but only the habitually vindictive would wish to see United’s revival exposed as a mirage. If only out of a wish to see Chelsea given a run for their unlimited money, United’s good start will be widely welcomed, but it would also be one of sport’s great stories if Ferguson was, at pensionable age, to drive his team on to unexpected glories.
This comes from someone who not only wrote off Ferguson as a faded force, but also must confess to doing so with a dollop of relish. Ferguson divides the world starkly into those who are with him and those who are against him, and he tends to make the choice simple for those who work in the media.
That is a sideshow compared with the brilliance that overwhelmed Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, although United’s collective improvement — and the vast strides by Nemanja Vidic and, surprisingly, Patrice Evra — may not be enough to land the most coveted trophies this season.
Chelsea look as formidable as ever, while Ferguson’s squad has a couple of vulnerable areas. Too much depends on the fragile Louis Saha staying fit, while the lack of midfield muscle will be only partly solved if Owen Hargreaves joins in January. They remain second favourites for the title and must be ranked lower still for the Champions League.
But Ferguson has raised a tantalising prospect of an Indian summer, which is more than many of us had expected, and he has done so in the week that he celebrates his 20th anniversary at Old Trafford.
That looming milestone took me back a decade to when a few of us sat around a table to mark Ferguson’s tenth anniversary and he predicted that “none of you will be around in another ten years, but I will, I’ll still be here taking them on”. Happy ending or not, it is quite an achievement.
How Sir Alex’s critics got it wrong . . .
“For God’s sake Fergie, Go.” - United Rant, fanzine
“Past his sell-by date” - The Times
“It is impossible not to see this as the time for him to go - The Independent
“It is difficult to imagine Ferguson surviving a season of raging controversy” - The Sun
“Ferguson has demonstrably, irrefutably, lost the plot” - The Guardian
