How Sir Alex Ferguson Became Football's Greatest Manager

BBC Football

How Sir Alex Ferguson Became Football's Greatest Manager

Through interviews with Ferguson, former players and colleagues, this documentary traces his managerial journey from Aberdeen to Manchester United, focusing on how youth development, ruthless management, constant rebuilding and an intense will to win built multiple trophy-winning teams. Its conclusion is that his greatness lies not only in the number of trophies but in his ability to keep renewing teams, meet different challenges and make players want to fight for him.

From the shipyards of Govan to the pinnacle of world football, this is the story of Sir Alex Ferguson. Featuring those who played alongside him and for him, the documentary explores the values, ambition and relentless drive that shaped football's most successful manager. From transforming Aberdeen and ending the dominance of Celtic and Rangers, to building multiple Manchester United teams and winning the Treble, discover how Ferguson continually reinvented himself and his clubs. 00:00 Introduction: The Making of Sir Alex Ferguson 01:41 Rebuilding Manchester United (1986) 05:19 Govan Roots & Football Beginnings 08:32 The Goal That Saved Ferguson's Man Utd Career 10:00 Learning From Busby & Winning The League 14:58 From East Stirlingshire To Aberdeen 17:14 Breaking Celtic & Rangers' Dominance 24:14 The Class of '92 Gamble 31:03 Chasing European Glory 34:24 Aberdeen's Greatest Triumph: Beating Real Madrid 39:11 The Road To The Treble (1999) 50:09 Rebuilding Again 01:06:03 Ruthless Decisions & The Beckham Exit 01:15:21 Ronaldo, Rooney & A New Dynasty 01:31:19 The Final Years, Retirement & Lasting Legacy Follow more on the BBC Sport app, iPlayer and Sounds. ============= Find us here: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BBCMOTD X: https://x.com/BBCMOTD Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bbcfootball/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bbcsport bbcfootball

Transcript

Let's go. [clears throat] When I was young, I was ferocious. I was want to rule the world. People always see that energy is jumping out of me. But as you get older, you choose your moments. Other times, you just have to let your presence do the job. >> [laughter] >> team was under my reign. Everyone wanted to win. There was no fear. Everything about him [music] makes him special and unique. >> His upbringing, his values, >> that passion and desire to win. >> Never ever [music] give up. You need that character. [music] >> Everything he touched was successful. >> Adrenaline goes away quick from you. The only way you can [music] recreate that excitement is to win again. >> You were going out there for him. >> He was just that figure that you wanted to please. The moment he walked into a room, it was like, >> if you had to assess Alex Ferguson and tell us what kind of man he is, what would you say? >> I kind of do it. I'm not really in a business to assess myself. I let others do it. They get plenty to say about me. Well, the big football story of the week is that the reign of Ron Atkinson, [music] Manchester United's manager with a champagne image is over. And the man who's going to replace him is Abedine's [music] Alex Ferguson. >> It's the only club I ever wanted to go to away from Abodine. I think the Manchester United is too big that I was not in any way going to turn that down. new manager, Alex Ferguson. >> In the autumn of 1986, Manchester United was nothing like the [music] club that it is now. There was even murmurings of relegation. And Sir Alex Ferguson rolled into town. >> Sir Bobby Charlton, who was a director of the club at the time, he asked Alex, "What do you feel that you could bring to United?" And he spoke about building the club from the roots right up to the top. Sir Bobby tapped one of the other directors [music] and said, "That's what we're looking for." >> There was a lot to get right because Man United had very slowly drifted. Man United brackets, ordinary close brackets, which had never been part of the Manchester United identity. >> It was a time when everybody really had this drinking culture. play hard, work hard, and we did it in that fashion. >> The kids would pick up the habits. They would start drinking all the rest. I went out with him once, never again really. I come home in the boot, Brian Robson's car. So, Alex had to sort that out and make it work the way he wanted to make it work. [music] But also, Ferguson was acutely aware of the club's history. He knew that homegrown [music] players were key to Manchester United's very fabric. [music] So he was also reorganizing the youth system. It was very simple [music] what he said. I want the best kids in this city. But the only thing that matters in football is winning. And it went backwards. It went badly backwards. >> That 8990 season was awful. >> [music] [music] >> He knew the pressure he was under. I have my own standards of what I'm after and I'm disappointed um with the position we're in. I must say that >> the team went 2 and 1/2 months without winning a league game. >> And in the middle of that 2 and 1/2 months was the FA Cup. Now, Jimmy Hill, the words crucial and crisis are being used as far as this match is concerned for United and of course their manager, Alex Ferguson. What do you feel about that? Well, I don't think that's any help to the club whatsoever. I think that puts added pressure on them at the most difficult time with massive injuries and all their other problems. >> The consensus amongst the press was this is his last chance. If he doesn't do something here, he's on the way out. I'll never forget him coming in the dressing room in that game. He'd said, "We decide [music] where we're going to be. This is where we become a good Manchester United team." >> It was a huge moment for him, but he had belief in himself. >> That determination is a fundamental part of his DNA. The great thing about Govern is its pride. It's full of life and vitality springing from the shipyards. worked in the shipyards. When I was a boy, it wasn't where you going to get a job. It was what were you going to work at? >> This was the [music] industry that sustained the whole ecosystem if you like of government. The shops, the pubs, the bookies, everything would be revolved around shipyard workers and their wages. It was tenement life. Alec was up in a very workingclass background. You would see his mother and father as the bastians of decency and the people who did the best they could with what they had. The foundations of his life were really being set at a very young age. >> I don't think you'd ever forget your background. It's a hard life that helps you get where you are just now. >> He used to have a sign on his desk saying, "I come for govern." And he never forgot those roots. He grew up a few hundred yards from Ibro stadium would have heard the sounds of the crowd from his window. So his ambition was to be a Ranger star. My father insisted in having an apprenticeship. So I was a toolmaker and it was a good job there, you know. So I had to make a decision whether I was going to be a part-time player and a full-time tool maker or put my lot into the football. >> Queens Park was an amateur club and that's where he started. Then they moved on from there. So Johnson the Fland >> Ferguson Ferguson coming in and it's a goal for the firmland Ferguson >> when he moved his ranges were 65,000. That was a Scottish transfer record. He's a good [music] goal scorer >> but as a player he was looking to manage. I really devoted myself to the game and [music] I think I was 23 when I went to my first coaching school. >> And when you talk about Scots who were uneducated in a formal sense but [music] went into football management and became extraordinary groundbreaking managers, Shankley, Busby, Jostein, they all shared the tenets of the working class. You stopped together. You worked hard. You are straight. You know what you want and you go harder to and [music] you learn as much as you can to make you better at achieving that. Alex Ferguson looked up to that paradigm [music] of Scottish managers. This is what he was. This is what he was born to do. That cup run was important not just for the manager's job but for the building blocks of a successful United team because one of the things he always said was if you can win a trophy it can start momentum. So many moments in life will hinge on a knife edge. One goal can change everything. >> And here's Robbins. >> It was a goal that beat Forest, but it was also a goal that seemed to signal a change of direction. [cheering] And that was driven by Sir Alex himself. He really started to push that belief that you can win whatever you like if you stick together [music] and you [clears throat] work through it. It doesn't just happen overnight, but the team was starting to take shape the way he wanted it to, and that just set us on a little bit of a cup run, and I think the team needed it. The real crux of the matter really is that I wasn't doing well in ' 89 and I did need someone to stand by me and for that, I'm grateful to the club because they did stick by me. that noise goes away and you build from there. >> I honestly think he thought long and hard about Manchester United because the spectre of Sir Matt Bisby would hang heavily over the whole club. But Bobby Charlton who was a huge figure in Manchester United's history in the early years Charlton was an absolute douty defender of Ali Ferg. He didn't get past Charlton to get at Ferguson. in order to win titles, you've got to have something that tells you that you know what it takes. But going from that to being a league contender, and it had been over 20 years since Man United had won the league, or really even been that close, Busby was the last. [music] Ferguson understood what Busby represented at Manchester United. He was the man who'd rebuilt the club after the Shadows of the War, then rebuilt it [music] again after the Munich Air disaster. [music] 23 passengers would ultimately die, eight players, [music] three officials. Munich decimated Manchester United. >> [music] >> Busby's belief was that they were there to make the life of those fans watching it better. And Ferguson bought into all of that. >> AND NOW THE STRENGTH WITH END ERUPTS. >> This is another great day in the history of Manchester United. >> That for years and years was there in the background that we weren't a Manchester United team until we'd won the Premier League. Lead United have cashed in on Manchester United's anxiety and are now proclaimed as champions. >> He was disappointed like we all were. >> We tailed off when it really really mattered. >> We had a good solid foundation there. >> But we [music] didn't have somebody to conduct the orchestra. >> And this way, Eric, please. >> Eric Canar was at Leads. He'd [music] won the title with them the previous season. all the best. >> Ferguson knew what a talisman he could become. >> So he just asked the question any chance we could have him and they got him, >> but he also knew how to get the best out of him. United had failed the previous season to win the league because nerves had crept in at the last button was a nerveless specimen and that certainty spread throughout the dressing room. The color came up, had the swagger and the poise to rule the show. >> Eric was that final piece in the jigsaw. >> Sheffield Wednesday was probably the most important game for that season. >> Aston Villa at the time were flying so we needed to win the match basically. But I remember in the game when we were one nil down thinking this is like the previous season when we lost to Knots Forest at home. That was the game [music] that killed us. And it one nil down the Sheffield Wednesday game. I had that same forboarding thought that this is going to be the game that's going to scupper the the title bid. [music] But he told us remember this feeling in your gut what it's like to lose the title. He would always roll a dice and go [music] for broke. And that's where obviously Fergie time started. That could be the win that now propels us to the title. They all think they were the goals that won us the league, which we still had a bit to do. And I'm delighted by the way that they think that way because they've ired out and had a pint sent over many many a time the two goals from Sheffield Wednesday. Thank you very much. Fergie time became the saying, didn't it? But what it was, it was just that willingness and that desire to go the whole way. It's never over till it's over. >> And that's the moment Old Trafford has been waiting for since 1967. >> It felt huge because we were under intense pressure. The fans were desperate, the players were desperate, and it was an incredible feeling. It really was. >> 26 years of hurt just gone like that. >> At that moment in time, he's with you and you're [music] with him because he's given you that opportunity to be successful. Yeah. He was ecstatic. We've done what we've done, but I just hope we can keep [music] the hunger. You can never achieve a thing without that real hunger and desire to keep doing it. [music] >> Hidden away in the back streets. This is Furs Park. East Stinger FC are currently bottom of the second division. He becomes a manager of what famously [music] was the worst club in Scottish senior divisions. There is no lower place to start. >> It was a heck of a job to go because it was really apathetic [music] the place. >> He had to put a team together. He blew all his transfer budget which I think was £10,000 on an experienced striker. [music] Got some kids from the youth team and built an incredibly successful team in [music] the Scottish second tier. I've been down to wares and it does you no harm, believe me. I >> was offered the job at St. Marin again brought [music] in young players and built a vibrant and successful team. But then they [music] became the first and only club to sack him. >> Good morning football club. But very very quickly they had the offer to go to Abedine. >> My father had gone down to interview him and right away he said this is the guy for us. He'd been reasonably successful but then he'd fallen out with the people at St. Miran. So he was wanting to prove to everyone [music] that he could succeed with a bigger football club. >> [music] >> It wasn't until I came to Ptori that I realized Abedine is special. [music] It's got greatness. Alec was very impetuous and he was [music] quite raw. I remember my father saying to me that he would choose the color of the toilet paper and the thickness of the toilet paper if you let him do it. >> He wanted to do everything. >> 279. Take one. I'm a firm believer in a youth policy. If they're good enough, they're old enough, no matter [music] what the age. >> We started an Aberine boys club in the Glasco area, which I had operated a boys club at B Street, which got me a lot of rewards there. [music] So, I tried the same thing when I first came to Aberine, but found it. It's a different club. This is going to be a national thing, you know, and what I did rather than have a one boys club, I started adding scouts on and we now have 12 scouts. And where are they positioned? >> Well, right all all over Scotland. >> And that's the master stroke for him. >> He promotes [snorts] youth. Fergie's a team had brilliance. It [music] had grit and steel. It was fearless. >> Getting away on his fast track. And oh, big goal. Brilliant goal by >> and had a mix of established talent [music] and youths that he'd nurtured himself. Basically, >> those younger players in particular had his fire in them. >> Derek Hamilton, there it is for our game. >> From the first moment he walked through the door, everything was about challenging at the top of the table and winning the trophies. This is at a point in time when Aberdine hadn't won the Scottish Cup for 12 years and they hadn't won the league for 25 years. So you would kind of think uh we're talking to a nutter here. >> In Scotland, it was always Rangers and Celtic and that was it. >> There's generations. I've never known anything rather than Celtic or Rangers winning in Scotland. That's what you've got to do. You've got to beat them to win the league. >> Just his whole persona energized [music] me in a sense of believing that it was possible. Aberdine in the early ' 80s. That's the load stone. That's distilled Fergie. We made us aware that it wasn't a thing that you turned up at half 10, finished at half 12. Your whole life still changed during the week. Nobody was allowed to go. No one's allowed to do this. It was just sheer professionalism from that point. >> He was demanded. The standards were high. >> And when he went to play for Ferg, you were going out there for him. >> The English press invented the hairdryer. >> Can you get a red top on? [music] Can you get one on? When the young man is in his 30s, we had a thing called a blast furnace. >> I described it as a pyrolastic blast. >> Famous Sunday morning blast. >> That volcano in the heat wave for Pompei incinerates [music] people. There's nothing wrong with your temper. Nothing wrong. The end of the day, they get plenty praise. >> If you get the blast furnace, make sure you get it at halftime because the referee's going to come up and save your life. [music] I missed a chance and he comes in at the end and his face was there. [music] That's the worst effing miss I've ever seen in my effing life. You know, the heat melted my face. Okay, you can have arguments and sometimes you'll criticize him, but most of the times you really want to praise him. If he pats you on the rump, you're safe. Believe me, it's like getting nighted. >> It delights you that you can able after a game and say, "Mnificent son." >> He's not going to tell you you're brilliant. He just p his shoulder up. You know I'm safe. I'm safe. [music] >> He knew when to put an arm around their shoulder or he knew when to kick them to bring them along with him [music] in what he wanted to achieve. >> 1979 80 were significantly behind Celtic in the league. We took on Celtic twice at Celtic Park in the space of maybe 10 days or a Fortnite, something like that. Everybody in their dog said there's no way that anybody can go to Celtic Park two occasions and beat Celtic in both occasions. And we had different thoughts [cheering] and if we get the victories, we'll win a league. The first visit to Celtic Park, I remember my dad putting the portable transistor radio on the walk home. >> And that's a goal. McGee >> to amazement there was news of Aberdine winning at Celtic Park and you thought oh wow this could really happen >> this was a team that believed and you know it's an easy word belief but this is a team that said not only can we win this league we're going to win this league >> in the second match at Celtic Park it was a great performance >> scores makes it 3-1 >> that was it that was really the turning taking on Celtic [music] twice and beating her twice. >> Yeah, that's when we got a bit scared then. [laughter] I think we remember we started to get here. We're in the lead here. What's going on? You know, >> Scandlin. Yes. What a marvelous goal to finish this match. Aine have won the championship. [music] >> He changed the established order. He just thrown it out the window. Nobody could really [music] understand how it happened. You know, it was something special. >> I don't think anybody that played in that team would be embarrassed to say that the factor that made the difference was Sir Ali. There's no doubt about it. You know, without him, that wouldn't happen. Alec, how long does it take to mature a boy to first team premier division standard? >> Well, the individual has got a lot to do with that. Have they got the [music] great enthusiasm for it? A zest for life. That is something that makes the man. It makes a player. >> [music] [music] >> Never a year went by if there was one the two of us had success was another letter sent from the [music] others congratulations signed it that's a great satisfaction you get me he wanted to dominate he had put something in place now where it took a time to get there. We've won the league. We've got to do it again. >> An incredible energy to keep rebuilding, to keep pushing forward. >> He knew when it was time to move a player on. He wasn't scared of doing that. >> It seems like Ferguson thought, I have to renew this team now. Ferguson got rid of Mark Hughes, Paul Lintz, and Andre Kelskis, who were the core of the side that had won a couple of titles [music] beforehand. >> The word on the street was that he didn't know what he was doing. >> Yeah, I thought he'd lost the plot. [laughter] >> Even United fans were going, "Oh, he's gone too far this time." >> I can understand the supporters [music] saying that and it's one of these decisions you hope you're right because I have taken a bit of a risk. The rest of the players in the dressing room thought, "Wow, well, where's that leave us?" >> He had a vision of what he was going to do. >> The [music] roots of this were back in the 1980s with his desire to get the best young players. >> You've got your established [music] players, your superstars, but that core of young players to come through, they were everything. These were players molded [music] into exactly how he wanted them. >> You look back at Manchester United and it was the same [music] for Matt Busby. It was all about youth and it was about having a team. >> There's two bosses he wants to emulate. So Matt Busby [music] and Joste did something that can never done again. He won a European Cup at [music] Celtic with 11 Scotsman famously born within 30 mi of each other in Glasgow. He needed to learn how do you become something [music] like that. As a young manager, Stein would give him the odd bit of advice or even [music] the odd bit of praise. And that's the germ of the