His players may have scored the goals, won the corners, made the crunching tackles and run themselves ragged but they would acknowledge that without Sir Alex Ferguson they would have won nothing more than sympathy — if that, from a public fed up with Man United’s decade of dominance — as Arsenal traipsed towards their second title in a row. Yesterday, Ferguson called this title his greatest achievement. He didn’t say that lightly: this league title, more than all seven that preceded it, was won after a trial by fire. United went into the blaze and came out the better for it; Arsenal, when put through that same fire over the last two months, saw their dreams go up in flames. Fergie’s next target: Europe In the most fulfilling moment of his career, Alex Ferguson kept in touch with reality. Having watched Manchester United triumph out of adversity, he was plotting the next step: winning the Champions League. Which begs the question: can it be done? His quest for the Holy Grail is not a one-year plan, and he knows that as well as he is aware of the real possibility. The biggest hurdle is that his present Manchester United team are simply not good enough to be the best in Europe. They may be among the second-best but, as amply demonstrated over the past month, are light years behind Real Madrid. Time, and money, can redress that situation. He will need both to rebuild his team: money for a goalkeeper in place of the erratic Barthez, a midfield general — perhaps Real’s Claude Makelele or Edgar Davids — to replace the slipping Roy Keane, a goalscorer to support the prolific Van Nistelrooy. Time, perhaps, to dismantle the sturdy skeleton of the side that’s served him so well for so long — Giggs, Beckham, Butt, Scholes, the Nevilles — and replace them with younger talent, especially the blossoming O’Shea and the best from United’s Youth Cup-winning team. Then, give Real time to burn themselves out. The crux of United’s team are still in their 20s; by contrast, Roberto Carlos, Hierro, Zidane, Figo and Makalele are all 30-plus. The attack is currently in its prime but they are all the same age (26-27); five years later they would be ageing. And Real aren’t unbeatable — ask Mallorca. Football operates in a cyclical pattern, bringing about changes that seem unlikely, perhaps inconceivable, before they take place — who would have thought, in 1988, that Liverpool’s decline was two years away and would last, at the time of writing, 13 years? Five years down the line, Ferguson’s new, improved Manchester United should be in place and ready for a shot at the big cup. It’s a simplistic argument, and a long shot fraught with risks, but Ferguson, the champion racehorse-owner, is nothing if not a gambler. (Jayaditya Gupta) Three times this season, Ferguson had to pull his team around as they lurched from one crisis to another, all the while slipping into a despondency made deeper by the parallel rise and rise of a truly brilliant Arsenal. At times it must have looked an impossible feat, rather like the mountaineer halfway up Everest before the swirling winds engulf him. Yet Ferguson has not built his team, or his career, on contemplating the possible. After Trough No. 1, the shambolic defeat to Manchester City in November, Ferguson tore into his players with a passion unprecedented even in the fiery Scotsman. The response? United — missing most of their first-team players through injury — beat Newcastle, Liverpool and Arsenal in a stretch that bounced them back into title contention. Trough No. 2 was in February. First, United were beaten by Arsenal in the FA Cup, the abject surrender that provoked Ferguson’s famous ‘Beckham boot’ episode. A week later, while the Reds were drawing at Bolton, Arsenal were walloping Manchester City in perhaps their finest performance of the season. It looked bleak, very bleak for the Old Trafford lot. This time, Ferguson dropped the whip and picked up the carrot — If you win this league, he told his players, it will be your greatest achievement. Everyone who has written you off now, he told them, will hail you as the champions. It was a classic display of his famous ‘siege mentality’ therapy, by which he gets the best out of his players by telling them the world is against them. Their response? A winning sequence that saw them breeze past Arsenal to their eighth title in 11 years, a feat matched only by the great Liverpool side of 1976-86. It isn’t easy managing a club like Manchester United; you are in charge of players whose worth, and income, is several times yours, and many of whom have won almost every club honour there is to win. How do you motivate them? What can you say that can possibly inspire them to heights they’ve already reached? On top of that is the sheer scale of things — television, dotcom, sponsors, media, the men in suits, the global business, everyone wanting a piece of you and your players. The only way to be on top is to be a control freak, which is what Ferguson (in)famously is. Nothing happens at Old Trafford without his direct approval — no interview, no transfer, not even a player’s birthday party. It requires constant, unflagging commitment and effort. Not easy for a man of 40, much tougher when you’re past 60. How long can he do it? He is getting on in years, and has frequently said that he wished to avoid the fate of his mentor former Scotland coach Jock Stein, who collapsed by his side at an international match and died in the dressing room. But he will also have noted the rebirth, as it were, of his friend Bobby Robson — at 70, the Newcastle manager is enjoying the game as ever before. And after this season he will be invigorated by the thrill of the chase — he already says he feels rejuvenated. One clue to his plans lies in the plans of his friends the billionaire Irish racehorse owners J P McManus and John Magnier; the latter’s wife and Ferguson co-own the champion Rock of Gibraltar. More importantly, the two Irishmen — forming what is known as the Coolmore Mafia (named after a champion stud-farm) — and their associates are shareholders in Manchester United PLC. Having reportedly gained control of a 20 per cent stake, they are poised for a takeover bid. Once there, they will want their friend Ferguson to be running things on the pitch. It’s hard to see Ferguson not responding.
