The Year Fergie’s Luck Ran Out …
When Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann stretched to save Juan Román Riquelme’s tame penalty, United boss Sir Alex Ferguson would have been forgiven for cursing football’s equivalent of Groundhog day.
In an echo of last year, another English team has made it to an eminently winnable Champion’s League final. Arsenal have now joined Liverpool as a team which has over-achieved in Europe thanks mainly to managerial acumen, in the shadow of relative failure at home. What must stick in Sir Alex’s throat even more is that he used to have an almost exclusive monopoly on the kind of good fortune that both Liverpool and Arsenal have enjoyed. Luck is the essential ingredient to every recipe for sporting success as Benitez and Wenger will confirm. It is the silent companion to the resolute defending, midfield craft and ruthless attacks that help teams collect trophies. This year may yet be remembered as offering ‘proof’ that, after more than a decade of success, Sir Alex Ferguson’s luck has finally run out?
In twenty years at United, Sir Alex has been the manager with a midas touch. It was his great fortune to arrive from Aberdeen just as Liverpool were transforming their playing staff from the likes of Barnes and Beardsley to that of Carter, Speedie and James. Disintegration was automatic. Everton and Spurs too, lost sight of their big- club ambitions, leaving United out in front in a two horse race with Arsenal.
Football’s finances suddenly went SKY-high, separating the giants from the also-rans. Best of generation players like Irwin, Schmeichel and Keane, heeded Ferguson’s summons and joined the ranks of the believers at Old Trafford. For the first time since the Busby era, tactical ability linked hands with barrel-loads of money and skipped along to the beat of true good fortune. For ten years, United were mostly irresistible.
Sir Alex has appeared to lead a charmed existence ever since a Mark Robbins goal cleared Nottingham Forest from United’s path to FA Cup success in 1990. Fortune favoured the noble Scot when he mugged Leeds manager Howard Wilkinson into releasing Eric Cantona in 1992. At about the same time, five or six exceptional youngsters were learning their craft in United’s junior side, to later provide Ferguson with footballing genius worth tens of millions of pounds and the base for a sustained period of domestic domination.
Famously, what seemed like ten minutes of extra time to Sheffield Wednesday fans in 1993, led to much touch-line dancing and the confirmation that ‘Taggart’ was indeed blessed.
The great cull of ’95 sent Ince, Hughes and Kanchelskis to new employers and buried Fergie under an avalanche of negative publicity. The look on his face as a young United team went on to claim the title in the following season was the ‘I told you so’ the Gods had ordained.
Sir Alex’s cup of good fortune ranneth over, of course, during the climax to the 1999 Treble season. Substitute Teddy Sheringham replaced Roy Keane early in the cup final and rewrote the terrace chant about him moving oop north and winning nowt. The spectacular end to the triumph in Barcelona was all the more glorious given the midfield Fergie sent out to do battle with the Bavarians.
So it comes as something of a shock to see just how far luck seems to have deserted Sir Alex in recent years. How many mirrors has the great man broken since 2003? Is he looking for ladders to walk under? Is this a tragedy of Greek proportion where the Gods call the mortals ever higher only to cast them down for their presumption?
United may well finish the season as runners-up in the Premiership and holders of the Carling Cup. Ferguson can take great credit for this achievement but is unlikely to receive too many plaudits as the suspicion remains that United, boasting Rooney, Ronaldo, Ruud and Rio, have underachieved.
Ferguson’s bad luck with transfers is now almost as legendary as his 1990’s jackpots. Who could have predicted that a midfield featuring Juan Veron, Keane and Scholes would so misfire? Thirty five million pounds spent on Rio Ferdinand still can’t erase the sorrow felt at the loss of Jaap Stam and the recruitment of Larry White. Every player saddled with a ‘one for the future’ tag, now carries a whiff of suspicion if the scouting report leading to his capture bears the signature of Sir Alex’s brother Martin Ferguson.
In recent years, everything that could have gone wrong for Fergie, has gone wrong. That flying boot could have nestled in anyone’s tea cup or clipped the ear of a Neville or two. Instead, it redecorated the most marketable face in world football and encouraged Beckham to take his circus off to Spain.
Sir Alex fell out with his horse-racing chums on the United board, who then sold their shares to an American tycoon with small pockets and big debts. Chelsea’s financial power permit an unrivalled position in the transfer market, leaving Fergie hamstrung at a time when the youth production line has slowed to a trickle.
United’s new owners keep Fergie on a short leash. Even if he had millions to spend on foreign players, it is not certain that they would wish to come to Old Trafford. Once footballers would crawl on their hands and knees to sign for Sir Alex. Now talents like Bayern’s Ballach and the much-hyped Obi Mikel, are unmoved at the sight of Fergie’s top-of-the-range Rolls Royce inching up the driveway and unswayed by the invitation to a game of snooker at his Cheshire pile.
If United cannot compete in the transfer market with Europe’s elite because the Glazer debt mountain forbids expensive recruitment, it will be Sir Alex who will carry the can and not the American owners. Football pundits, bewitched by Arsene Wenger’s ability to unearth gems for modest fees, stand ready to shred Fergie’s reputation should United’s known frailties in central midfield continue for another year.
Against this backdrop of bad news and ill fortune, Fergie would have appreciated some media-diverting attention on other top teams in peril. Again, he has been unlucky, as his closest rivals have exceeded all possible expectation.
Rafa Benitez guided a Liverpool team, so poor it finished thirty points behind champions Chelsea, to top of the pile in Europe last year. And now Arsenal have qualified for this year’s final with a team written off by most commentators just three months ago, as still in transition after the sale of Patrick Viera. Chelsea’s Mourinho now wears the crown of invincibility for which Ferguson was once acclaimed.
Sir Alex has said that next season threatens to be the most competitive for years. Arsenal have performed spectacularly in Europe and will do better in the Premiership next year. Liverpool and Spurs are improving. Add Chelski’s gazumping financial power and Sir Alex will need all the luck he enjoyed in the 1990’s and more, if he is to regain the title, in what may prove to be his final year in management. AU
© Copyright: Absolutely United 2006
