Self opinionated with a nasty side (Managing My Life - Alex Ferguson)

Name: dave27

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Product:	Managing My Life - Alex Ferguson
Date:	25/07/02 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fascinating

Disadvantages: Obsessive, Self centred

Whether you like this book, the autobiography of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, will largely depend on your feelings towards the subject...

More of that later, however, and for now let's concentrate on the book itself.

Like most such footie biographies Managing My Life is ghost written, with healthy revisions by contributors to the mumbling mouthings of the supposed author. It has the usual hallmarks of the genre, with a preoccupation with their own particular view of life. Fergie's preoccupation with his socialist ideals was born from his working class upbringing, which he shared with most of the other great managers, like Busby, Shankly, Revie, Stein and Clough (why is it that there aren't characters and great men like that around anymore?)

Life was hard as a youngster and Fergie revels in the mythology and glorification of his past, and has an underlying bitterness and resentment for those who he feels has crossed him. Much of this thick tome devotes itself to the denunciation of real or imagined bad guys, and the bile dealt out to his erstwhile right hand man, Gordon Strachan (who served Fergie well at both Aberdeen and Man U) is disappointing.

Fergie's one eyed description of losing the 1992 title battle to Leeds United is similarly lacking in generosity and warmth, and it is this obsession with him and his own, and total conviction that everything he does is right is what really grates about the man and his works.

Having said all that, Ferguson has won grudging respect from even his fiercest critics for his achievements and the way he has brought the Old Trafford club to eminence.

Those who complain that he had the money to do it and maintain that anyone with the same resources would have been guaranteed success are fooling themselves.

David O'Leary's bulging bank balance never created a breakthrough and neither did that of all Fergie's predecessors at O
ld Trafford, and the man's first four years in the job almost saw him go the same way. I well remember the time when only a decent Cup run in the 80's saw Ferguson escape the sack in his early days.

The key factor in his rise, however, is money and the faith placed in the man by United over years. Dominance isn't gained overnight and Fergie built his empire on solid foundations.

The book encapsulates the man particularly well, along with his patriarchal style, painting a vivid/livid picture of the emotion and respect that always drifted aorund him.

The story of the Treble triumph is thrilling and seductive, although it will only be truly enjoyed by those who are true blue Reds.

In fact, the whole thiong's like that and it's difficult to feel any empathy if, like many out there, you resent the cornering of the market which Fergie's presided over. Grudging respect is the standard response, and that's never a positive outlook.

The book is all about candidness and forthrightness and for that one has to have respect, but it's difficult to separate the man out from the club these days. Fergie will go down in history as a great club manager, probably the best of all time, but he's not a nice guy - still that ain't really what it's about. I mean, try naming a successful, great manager who was also liked - Busby was one, and Shanks was another, but all the rest were flawed geniuses whom you wouldn't really have wanted to share a dinner table with.

The other thing that's good about the book is the vivid social picture of the last fifty years which it paints, exploring the move from post war Britain and austerity to the money-obsessed world of today... fascinating, although in a creepy, unpleasant way...

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