MANAGING HIS LIFE (Managing My Life - Alex Ferguson)

Name: C_Padd

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Product:	Managing My Life - Alex Ferguson
Date:	12/01/02 (203 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting early life, Great career, Interesting to read

Disadvantages: None

Alex Ferguson is one of the people I most admire in football today. As much as I hate Manchester United I have to look on at his record with admiration, and I actually like the bloke as a person. Not only has he dominated English football over the last decade with his Manchester United team, also breaking the Rangers/Celtic domination in Scotland with Aberdeen and as a player. Although recently he has dropped hints otherwise, he will be retiring this summer to draw down the curtain on an illustrious career. ‘Managing My Life’ is his autobiography that covers all this and more.

The book starts with a recollection of the magical events at the 1999 European Cup final when his United team beat Bayer Munich with a late come back. This was arguably the crowning glory of his Manchester career and is a good place to start with the highs, anticipation and anxiety of the build up, then the euphoria of winning.

Then he moves onto his early life. This is a very interesting part, and for non-football fans the best bit because of the lack of football, but it does feature still. Seriously this is very interesting, he lived as a kid just meters from the river Clyde, so qualifying as real Clydesider. Also his working life as an apprentice toolmaker, living in quite poor background at a tough area of Glasgow. His father and brother, Martin both worked in a local shipyard and his family was mixed between Catholic and Protestant. This also became and issue in football when he was turned down for some clubs, most notably the mighty Rangers on his wife and family both being Catholics that caused splits though has effectively never been an issue for him. He is close to his brother Martin, both enjoy their football and grew up together.

As a player Ferguson enjoyed a good career north of the border. He started young; playing football came above his schoolwork, and signed for several big armature clubs before being signed for Queens Park, who
played at the famous Hampden Park. Ferguson was a striker, tough enough to handle himself yet a talent and a nippy striker. He worked his way through the youth and second teams, then the first team. At this time he still had a job as an apprentice, but this came under pressure when he moved away to St. Johnstone. He has also played for Scotland at youth levels, and at club level he moved to Dunfirmeline where he was a regular scorer. A dream move to Rangers followed when he signed, and in the tail end of his career he signed for Falkirk. It was enough to earn a living, he was a decent enough player though it was as a manager he is most famed.

Ferguson entered management with some lower league Scottish clubs, before his big move came when he moved to Aberdeen in the top division. There he was able to end Celtics and Rangers stranglehold up there by winning the Premiership. He also picked up some cups domestically, but an even bigger triumph was winning the European Cup Winners Cup. A move to Manchester United came about while United were going through a sticky patch not winning a lot and poor league form. His turnaround from this to domination, which only Blackburn and Arsenal have beaten is famous. The follows the progress of the seasons, not to bore you with details. As Hansen famously said ‘you’ll never win anything with kids’ Beckham, Scholes, the Nevilles, Giggs to name a few were brought on by him, but that is not without trouble. Paul McGrath and Norman Whiteside soon fell out with Ferguson over drinking and staying out late, as have others over time. Lee Sharpe signed from Torquay was more famous down here for his drugs than his football, he was more commonly known as smackhead, he too fell foul of Ferguson. There is also transfer dealings, his trouble with agents such as Kanchelski’s move and Barthez and van Niestlerooy arrival more recently. There is a lot of football there, I loved this, as clearly does he.

Asid
e from football Ferguson is keen on horseracing, as are many footballers who have money and time spare to put a lot in. He owns several horses, and makes pretty frequent references to his delight when one wins a race. He also (briefly) ran a pub in Glasgow, where he has several stories from the interesting characters and visitors. There is also a moment of pride when he is awarded the knighthood for services to football, and he is close to his wife Cathy and all his other family. His son Darren plays for Wrexham in the second division, again he is proud of his son who is carrying on with the tradition, though he did manage to get two of them a trial at United when he was there, so there may have been a bit of a helping hand.

A whole chapter of the book is dedicated to the great manager Jock Stein. Ferguson clearly shows in his writing how honored he was to have the chance to work under him. He is one of the footballing greats and when working under him as assistant for the national team. He was there at the game, as assistant again when Stein died of a heart attack. He had the job of telling the family, and was shocked at the loss. A nice piece of writing, much of it from the heart and very complimentary to Stein. As Scotland assistant he traveled to the World Cup in 1986 and again enjoyed the experience. Scotland manager Craig Brown parted company earlier this season; a nice end would be for Ferguson to take the job. This clearly looks unlikely Berti Vougts looks favourite to take this and Ferguson still looks set for retirement.

Overall this is well worth a read, the early days are interesting to read, while I enjoyed the parts about the career as both a player and a successful manager. He is someone you have to admire for all he has achieved, and this book is worthy of the great man. He will be missed for his influence and character in the football world. Great read.

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