Sir Alex Ferguson is a retired Scottish football manager. He has managed Manchester United, Aberdeen and St. Mirren. He was born in 1941 and has won more trophies than anyone else in the history of English football.During his 26 years with Manchester United he won 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups and two UEFA Champions League titles. He was knighted in the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honors list, for his services to the game. Ferguson is the longest serving manager of Manchester United, having overtaken Sir Matt Busby's record on 19 December 2010. He retired from management at the end of the 2012–13 season, having won the Premier League in his final season.
Early Managerial Career
Ferguson in his early managerial career was appointed manager of East Stirlingshire and then of St. Mirren (1974-1978) producing a remarkable transformation of a team in the lower half of the old Second Division watched by crowds of just over 1,000, to First Division champions in 1977, discovering talent like Billy Stark, Tony Fitzpatrick, Lex Richardson, Frank McGarvey, Bobby Reid and Peter Weir while playing superb attacking football. The average age of the league winning team was 19 and the captain, Fitzpatrick, was 20.St. Mirren has the distinction of being the only club ever to sack Ferguson. He was sacked for various breaches of contract including unauthorized payments to players According to a Billy Adams Sunday Herald.
Ferguson joined Aberdeen as manager in June 1978, replacing Billy McNeill who had only managed the club for one season before he was offered the chance to manage Celtic. Although Aberdeen was one of Scotland's major clubs they had won the league only once, in 1955 under Dave Halliday. Ferguson had now been a manager for four years, but was still not much older than some of the players and had trouble winning the respect of some of the older ones such as Joe Harper. The season did not go especially well, with Aberdeen reaching the semi-final of the Scottish Cup and the Scottish League Cup Final, but losing both matches and finishing fourth in the league.
In 1979-1980 Ferguson won the Scottish league. It was the first time in fifteen years that the league had not been won by either Rangers or Celtic; he felt that he had the respect of his players, later saying "That was the achievement which united us. I finally had the players believing in me", the team continued their success with a Scottish Cup win in 1982.
Ferguson led Aberdeen to even greater success the following season (1982–83). They had qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup and impressively knocked out Bayern Munich who had beaten Tottenham Hotspur 4–1 in the previous round, this gave them the confidence to believe that they could go on to win the competition, which they did, with a 2–1 victory over Real Madrid in the final on 11 May 1983. Ferguson felt that "he'd done something worthwhile with his life". This was followed up with victory in the European Super Cup in December 1983, when Hamburg, the reigning European Cup champions were beaten 2–0 over two legs. Aberdeen had also performed well in the league that season, and retained the Scottish Cup with a 1–0 victory over Rangers, but Ferguson was not happy with his team's play in that match and upset the players by describing theirs as a "disgraceful performance" in a televised interview after the match.
After a sub-standard start to the 1983–84 season, Aberdeen's form improved and the team won the Scottish league and retained the Scottish Cup. Ferguson was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1984 honors list, and was offered the managers' jobs at Rangers and Arsenal during the season. Aberdeen retained their league title in the 1984–85 season, but had a disappointing season in 1985–86, finishing fourth in the league, although they did win both domestic cups. Ferguson had been appointed to the club's board of directors early in 1986, but that April he told Dick Donald, their chairman, that he intended to leave that summer.
Ferguson had been part of coaching staff for the Scottish national side during qualifying for the 1986 World Cup, but manager Jock Stein had collapsed and died on 10 September 1985 – at the end of the game in which Scotland qualified from their group for a play-off against Australia. Ferguson promptly agreed to take charge of the Scottish national side against the Australians and subsequently at the World Cup. To allow him to fulfill his international duties he appointed Archie Knox as his co-manager at Aberdeen. However, after Scotland failed to progress past the group stages of the World Cup, Ferguson stepped down as national team manager.
Around this time, Ferguson had two offers from Arsenal and Tottenham but he rejected this offers. That summer, there had been speculation that he would take over from Ron Atkinson at Manchester United, who had slumped to fourth in the English top flight after a ten-match winning start had made title glory seem inevitable.
It was not the first time that Ferguson had been linked with a move to England. In February 1982, Wolverhampton Wanderers had approached him about succeeding John Barnwell as manager as they were heading for relegation from the First Division. He rejected this offer, perhaps concerned about the club's financial stability, as they were more than £2 million in debt at the time and narrowly avoided going out of business. At the end of the 1984–85 season, it was reported that Ferguson was being considered for the Liverpool manager's job after the retirement of Joe Fagan was announced, but the job was quickly accepted by Liverpool striker Kenny Dalglish.
Although Ferguson remained at Aberdeen over the summer, he did eventually join Manchester United when Atkinson was sacked in November 1986
Manchester United
Ferguson took over as boss of the renowned but underachieving Manchester United club in November 1986. His job was reportedly on the line after a particularly rough stretch early in the 1989-90 season, but the Reds recovered to win the FA Cup that year and a string of successes followed: the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1991, the League Cup in '92 and the elusive Premier League championship in '93.Ferguson's crowning achievement came in the 1998-'99 season, when he became the first manager of a British side to win the treble: the Premier League championship, the FA Cup and the European Cup. It marked the start of a stretch in which United won three consecutive Premier League titles, and four in five years. In 2003, Ferguson received the Manager of the Decade award, presented by the FA Premier League to mark the first 10 years of the Premiership.
Ferguson again led his side to three straight Premier League titles from 2007-'09, along with European Cup and FIFA Club World Cup victories in 2008, and back-to-back League Cups in 2009-'10. In December 2010, he surpassed the 24-year-plus tenure of Sir Matt Busby to become the longest-serving manager in United's history. Fittingly, he ended the season with another milestone victory that gave United a record 19 Premier League championships.
On 2 September 2012, Ferguson managed his 1000th league game with United against Southampton. United won the game 3–2 thanks to a hat-trick from Robin Van Persie. Two weeks later, he won his 100th game in the Champions League with a 1–0 win over Galatasaray at Old Trafford.
Retirement
On 8 May 2013, Ferguson announced that he was to retire as manager at the end of the football season, but would remain at the club as a director and club ambassador. The Guardian announced it was the "end of an era", while UEFA president Michel Platini said that Ferguson was "a true visionary". British Prime Minister David Cameron described Ferguson as a "remarkable man in British football". Former Manchester United players Paul Ince and Bryan Robsonagreed that Ferguson would be "a hard act to follow". Manchester United co-chairman Joel Glazer said "His determination to succeed and dedication to the club have been truly remarkable." Ferguson revealed that he had in fact decided that he was going to retire back in December 2012 and that it had been very difficult not to reveal his plans.
Ferguson released his second autobiography in October 2013 called My Autobiography.
In January, 2014, Ferguson was appointed as the UEFA Coaching Ambassador, and said it was "an honour and a privilege" to be given the role. In April 2014, it was announced that Ferguson would be taking up a "long-term teaching position" at Harvard University, where he would be lecturing on a new course titled "The Business of Entertainment, Media and Sports". This came six months after he revealed his blueprint for success was included in the Harvard Business Review in a series of interviews with Anita Elberse. His third book, Leadership, was published in collaboration with Michael Moritz in August 2015.
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