[Applause]
genius
fighter sharp
[Music]
genius a winner
ledge
[Music]
nobody's familiar mr alex
when sir alex arrived from aberdeen in
the autumn of 1986
manchester united were in decline they
hadn't won the league since 1967
and found themselves second from bottom
in the old first division
ferguson set about overhauling every
aspect of life at the club
bringing discipline back into the
changing room by eradicating the
destructive drinking culture
the players didn't really know a lot
about him one player who did was gordon
strachan he played with him at aberdeen
and a lot of the united players
asked tracking what he was like and he
sort of laughed and said woof
you know he's going to be a big change
of cena he gathered the plays in the
small gymnasium
at the cliff he said i'm not happy about
this
culture of drinking i'm hearing things
around manchester
from people saying you've been spotted
out i don't like what
i'm hearing it's not professional and
there was some resistance to that change
there was well this is what it's always
been like this is what it's like at
every club and maybe it had been but
that wasn't how sir alex ferguson wanted
it to be
he scared me to death pretty much um
i played undefeated i was fearful of one
of his hair dryer telling's off i didn't
want to let him down
probably liverpool was the worst one
when uh he sort of kicked me out my
house
told me half time he was kicking me out
my house and putting me back in digs and
my girlfriend had moved up from
birmingham she had to go back home and
we had to split up and uh my dog had to
get sold
my car had to get sold um and i had to
go out there and prove to him i could
play
to execute his root and branch reform
sir alex transformed the scouting
network and youth setup
united's success for the next 27 years
will be built on home-grown products
i think brian carey he put brian kearn
in charge of the youth
in a local area and he just got loads
more scouts and they got a lot more
active
audi kept coming up and telling the
likes of me
maybe the likes of um paul wintz maybe
even dennis irwin to an extent and all
players in that kind of
time is uh these players i.e
nikki butt paul scholes um
gary neville david beckham we're going
to be taking your places soon he
believed in
what was coming through you know and it
proved that he was right
yeah i mean sometimes i mean when we're
playing reserve games he'd be watching
and after the game win lose it'd come in
and saves peace but it always you know
knock on that
you know user looking to play for the
first team one stop away from playing
for the first team
say it was a bad game you'd all have to
improve
he was there at the nights you know with
the youth team players after being with
the first team
you turn around he's sat on the on the
bench next to you of course
the players look over to the bench and
obviously
they play harder they play faster they
want to impress him he was everywhere
just that force of energy and ambition
and drive then lifted the whole club
everybody else then was infected by that
same sort of drive
manchester united the history and the
busby babes and everything was about the
youth and
and really that core of homegrown
players gave the
game that gave them the spirit of man
united back yeah
initially sir alex's shakeup didn't have
the desired effect
it is widely reported he was close to
being sank after a rocky start to his
fourth season
but the manchester united board stuck
with him
in 1993 united won their first league
title in 26 years
adding to their fa cup league cup and
cup winners cup triumphs under ferguson
[Music]
at the heart of his success was
ferguson's skillful man management
his reputation as a fearsome dictator
kept the players on their toes
while his soft decide earned their
loyalty
he knew how to to give you
a rolican you had to put his arms around
you comfort you
[Music]
wasn't that often but um he just had a
unique way of of getting his point
across
steve bruce um's wife janet was in
hospital she was having a back operation
and we're playing
we're playing so brucy left his mobile
phone on
during the game yet it was on and we
coming at half time
things weren't going well this was at
old trafford so we sit in the dressing
room and
steve's phone goes off we're all sitting
there and i'm we're all kind of going
like that kind of what it is and i knew
it wasn't me i knew it wasn't dennis
because dennis
dennis did have a phone he was never
switched on anyway big pete
straight away himself as normal going it
wasn't me you know
and maybe his eyes go and given the way
it was and you could just see everything
quite you looked at bruce and you could
just see in bruce's face and persona
it was me the gaffers ran across
grabbed the phone had a go at steve
bruce steve bruce had to go trying to
tell him that this is
my wife tonight i don't care if your
wife's hospital and just
through the phone against the wall
towards the bin
and smash the phone when sir alex used
to get on my back it used to make me
play better
we're playing leads away and
[Music]
i got absolute and bollocking
at half time and even being honest at
the time i was thinking
i thought it wasn't that wasn't that bad
but
um so went out we wouldn't ended up
winning a game come back in and then one
of the the young girl had to come
come up to me and was like um
you know like when they gaffered us give
you the right goal they said
he come round and said i'd be all right
now
in 2008 manchester united's midfield
dynamo darren fletcher was diagnosed
with ulcerative colitis
a debilitating bowel disease terrified
and embarrassed he can find it in sir
alex ferguson
obviously i had to experience a
different science fiction during my
illness and i've got the utmost respect
for him because he took football up the
equation and
then looked after me and made sure i
looked after my family
united dominated the 90s winning 13
major titles
with ferguson building two trophy
winning teams
this process of regeneration wasn't just
limited to the players
he had the foresight to introduce
forward-thinking coaches to help execute
his vision
when i got the call from alex as he was
then
i was at derby county we went into his
wonderful office
we sat down and directly asked me the
one question of the interview
how do i keep my team number one
and i answered think behave
and train like you're number two
and that hit the spot and his next
question was when can you start
sir alex made a decision he decided to
double up pre-season training and so
instead of leaving all the players to
just lie around on the sofas in between
morning and afternoon sessions
we cleaned out one of the rooms at
carrington i put in some products which
were effectively lounges
so at least up to 12 or 15 of the
players could could go in there
and that was principally the first ever
time that a conversation had been had
with a club like that or anybody where
we're actually encouraging
athletes to nap that wonderful word
to actually take a controlled recovery
period go to sleep
in between sessions and to see the
levels of if they went a little bit
quicker in the afternoon but it was
it was kind of so early days people
started to knock on the door
sam allardyce bolton arsene wenger and
gary lewin at arsenal the england squad
he was open to all the methodologies
that you thought
might help to make his players the best
they can be
and i had an open book to be able to
work with the players all the time
so i went into the club to do some rehab
training with roy keane and we ended up
producing
boxing training which was really
important so it was a step
different so we've got your weights
you've got your various you know
abdominal core stuff or whatever
but then you've got boxing training
something new was happening all the time
i think it's gym specific gym stuff and
it's not necessarily just banging out
weights it's all types of stuff you know
certain leg movements and mobility
and and you know we did bring that in
early doors and a lot of it was for
you know preventing injury by the time
sir alex ferguson called time on his
glittering career at manchester united
he had won 49 trophies in the most
successful managerial career britain has
ever known
his unrivaled achievements owe much to
his insatiable desire for success
and unique fashion sense you see some of
these managers they're preening
themselves so they're
they're very aware of their image
they're a bit vain or they you know
they're very image conscious you know
whereas
he was very just the values conscious
and the and the people on you so i
remember that
they won the european cup in moscow you
know and
he chopped it down in it and and
the john terry slipped because it was
wet
and they had these paul smith suits and
shoes especially for the
thing and it was soaking the grass so
they come in so these were pointy shoes
i probably didn't really see them at all
and
and by the time it got wet they curled
up
they're like alibaba shoes you know so
it came to the sort of big do the
banquet at the end
and he's doing a speech at him david
gill stood there he's got a pair of
white trainers on with his flash with
his suit
it's almost like yeah he doesn't give a
damn about it you know
it's just the people here all these sort
of families like that by that stage the
granddad the whole of his fault family
it's like yeah what's that matter you
know i could do it my slippers this
he was a master of coming in at halftime
when you were
drawing or losing and when you didn't
expect them to go mentally dead
when you expect him to go mentally he
was calm and you go into his tactic
boards and he pinpointed one or two
little things
and that was usually the difference to
go and win the game so it's hard to
explain because a lot of what he did was
very
simplistic but other times the true
genius came out so he mixed them
actually and some of these
team talks before big games were you
know here standing up on the back of
your neck stuff and you went out there
with
so much pride and passion and desire to
do well for him and to do well for
yourself and to do well as part of the
club
that you know that brought the best of
us in big nights
driving from the cliff to old trafford
the day after they won the league
and he was on the phone you know talking
about a transfer
and you're thinking he's not stopping
you know this guy's not stopping for a
minute he's like right when you go to
the next thing
he wants to find a whistle blows on that
league or okay you celebrate for the
night but there's almost
like an anti-climax you've done all the
work and as a sort of anti-climax
and he was like straight on to the next
thing
he was incessant you know you just
wouldn't stop
you just won the trouble you keep the
same players again the motivation might
be not there
as much you know if you start signing a
few plays well
looking to get in the team you just all
kicks on again
[Music]
ferguson's win at all costs mentality
was critical in helping him restore
united to their former greatness
but it was his ability to observe and
understand the human psyche that truly
defined his leadership
he used to get there at seven o'clock in
the morning and he would
be overlooking the car part where
everybody came into
but also it would overlook the training
pictures so he would see
every player get out the car and see
what mood that was in
so he's watching all his players all the
time
ronaldo at the real tough time for the
first 18 months to two years where the
manager tried to toughen him up and
when he when he kept onto the ball too
long and he wasn't
delivering it into the box and he was
beating men's two and three times and
his end product wasn't quite there he
learned the hard way there's no doubt
about that
and he got kicked but that was
that was a way of telling them that if
you do this
you're not helping the team and and
you're going to get kicked in games i
think he'll be the first to tell you
there was a tough school at manchester
united
at the time we all experienced that i
experienced it and i think that was part
of
what made him the best player in the
world and he also had the desire to to
achieve things for alex ferguson who
respected greatly and his teammates
i'll tell you i know ronaldo loved every
moment of his time at manchester united
[Music]
he was like a personal coach for
everybody in the club whether it be the
gate man
the tea lady the secretaries each player
he had a personal impact on them he he
touched them personally
you know just small things even you know
he put a hot spoon on the back of the
groundsman's neck and
you know at the lunch time and it's like
oh what's this but that groundsman then
goes away and tells all the lads in the
office
in the groundsman's heart and tells his
wife at home if you don't have fergie
you know he did today
bloody hell and it's like it's a
personal touch
and he had that personal touch with
everybody which made it
feel like a family it definitely meddled
a little bit
uh not completely he's still got a
rollicking
it's actually after he retired and
it was at his golf day and i came over
and said are you doing gaffer and he
said no no it's not gaffer anymore
it's uh it's alex i said well definitely
can't call you alex
it's because it's you know it's not my
nature and he still gets called to go
for now because
all the players have so much respect for
him and uh i'm rather so
genius fighter
sharp a winner
[Music]
genius
you