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
numbers people gone
Myths grow all the time. If I was to listen to the number of times I've thrown teacups then we've gone through some crockery in this place. It's completely exaggerated, but I don't like people arguing back with me.
names people advice
Distinguish between power and control, delegate, be decisive - and always remember people's first names.
winning years league
Manchester United might not win Premier League every year, but we'd always be up there competing for it every year.
soccer teamwork canada
I'm going to tell you the story about the geese which fly 5,000 miles from Canada to France. They fly in V-formation but the second ones don't fly. They're the subs for the first ones. And then the second ones take over - so it's teamwork.
football team believe
You start with what you believe in. I believe in building a football club rather than building a football team.
soccer football hands
Sometimes in football you have to hold your hand up and say, yeah, they're better than us.
teamwork player embrace
The work of a team should always embrace a great player, but the great player must always work.
winning two consistency
There was one or two offers that did come along during my time at United, but I always came back to this point; why would you leave United? Where is the bigger challenge? And the thing about challenges is, once you have won something, you can't live on that. Not at Manchester United - you have got to win the next one. And that's the challenge. Maintaining that consistency of winning which is a mentality that I have had.
winning player games
I always used to say to players at half-time, 'Be patient. The last fifteen minutes throw the kitchen sink at them. It's worth a gamble'. You are going to lose the game anyway. There is nothing better than when you get to that last fifteen minutes and you actually win the game late on. The fans are going out of the gates I gave it a try and it worked.
team mistake two
Go make your mistakes in the first team. You'll learn more in a month in the first team than you will in two years in the reserves.
football engineering years
I always say prepare to be a coach to anybody who wants to be a coach. At 24 years of age when I left engineering to become full time in football, I made sure that I was never going back to engineering.
player thinking servant
Lampard, for me, was a marvellous servant for Chelsea, but I didn't think of him as an elite international footballer. And I am one of the few who felt Gerrard was not a top, top player.
football team winning
If you were in a game of football always think you need maybe eight to win the game. Three can on an off day or semi off day but you always hard. And the players recognize that and they'll do that extra to make sure they get winning. The essence of the team is to understand and trust each other and to trust me.
soccer country football
You have to put all the criticism of this club down to jealousy. United have produced more players who have played for their country, more world-class players and more players who have won European Footballer of the Year than any other team in this country, so we must be doing something right.