‘ I only had four woprld-class players’

Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson says he only worked with four players he considered to be world class during his 26 years there.

The Scot won two Champions League and 13 Premier League titles at the club.

From those successful teams, he says midfielder Paul Scholes and attacking trio Eric Cantona, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs were his best players.

“They made the difference and the evidence is there,” he told the BBC’s Dan Walker for Football Focus.

Ferguson, 73, described Cantona, who United signed from Leeds in November 1992, as “the catalyst”, adding “when we brought him in we won the league that season – it was his mere presence and his ability to make and score goals.

“The younger breed like Ryan and Scholes were just fantastic players and the thing about those two was longevity.

“Are there players who have played right through the whole of the Premier League and performed at the level they have? There are none, absolutely none.

“Of course Ronaldo was just a complete genius of a player.”

England captains Wayne Rooney and David Beckham, Roy Keane, Carlos Tevez, Rio Ferdinand and Peter Schmeichel were all “great players” according to Ferguson.

“But these players elevated themselves above all that.”

Ferguson, now a United director and lecturer at the Harvard Business School, has released a new book on the art of management called Leading, and in a wide-ranging interview discusses topics ranging from Cantona to the Cuban missile crisis.

He also talks about:

• How his advice helped Nigel Pearson at Leicester
• Why he never took the England job
• Why he should have won the European Cup more often
• His famous fiery temper

Giggs appointment was a masterstroke

Ferguson believes current United manager Louis van Gaal pulled off a masterstroke by appointing Giggs as his assistant at Manchester United.

Giggs, 41, won 34 trophies under Ferguson, making him the most decorated player in English football history, before retiring in 2014.

And Ferguson, who retired the previous season, told BBC Sport: “Louis made a great choice because of Ryan’s knowledge, his time at the club and his ability.”

Former Everton manager David Moyes succeeded Ferguson but was sacked before the end of his first season, with Giggs taking charge for the final four games.

When Netherlands manager Van Gaal was appointed at the start of the 2014-15 season, one of his first decisions was to make Giggs assistant manager and it is a partnership Ferguson believes can flourish.

He said: “I think Ryan seems to enjoy that he is learning off a man with great experience. It’s working.

“There is good communication, Ryan’s working very hard and picking up things from a foreign coach which is different from the way I operated so it looks as if it’s going OK.”

‘Show the fans you care, Nigel’

Ferguson revealed how he likes watching the pre-match news conferences and how he sometimes gives advice to managers facing the cameras, including to Leicester manager Nigel Pearson when City were struggling to avoid relegation from the Premier League last season.

“I felt he was a little bit too casual,” said Ferguson. “I said ‘Your team is bottom of the league and you have to show your anger a little bit. The fans want to see you care.’

“He improved after that and so did his team. He did a great job.”

Leicester avoided relegation but Pearson was sacked in the close season.

The England job holds too much expectation

Ferguson was twice approached about the England job but said he never considered it because he’s a Scot. He was “never close to it” even though former United chairman Martin Edwards twice gave the Football Association permission to speak to him about it.

“One it’s an impossible job. The pressure on the England manager is huge,” he said.

“Every competition, for some reason the press make them favourites, or one of the favourites, and to my mind they have never been favourites.

“The fans also get lit up by the press observations. The huge army of fans they take to the World Cup or the European Championships is fantastic but brings pressure.”

Regrets? Not winning more European Cups

Ferguson is still heavily involved in football, working for European football’s governing body Uefa and as a Manchester United director, but he does not hanker for his old job.

“You miss the staff at Carrington and the players in the dressing room but the only time I really felt I missed it was at the 2014 European Cup final between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid,” he said.

“It’s all about European finals. I was involved in four but I wish it was more. I lost three other semi-finals where we should have done better and on other occasions we were a bit unlucky.

“At the end of the day it’s a wonderful tournament, the best in world football.”

Temper? Sometimes I just wanted to rule the world

Ferguson was famous for giving players the “hairdryer treatment” but admitted he got calmer as he got older.

“I didn’t need to lose my temper as much,” he said. “When I was young I was ferocious. I just wanted to rule the world so my anger would be obvious.

“As I got older you choose your moments and sometimes I would manufacture that anger with no reason at all and at other times you just have to keep quiet.”

 

BBC