It has been a while (10 years to be exact) since I wrote anything about the club I love and support: Manchester United.
Somewhere
along the line, I lost the passion to keep writing about the club. Perhaps it
was frustration. Perhaps it was exhaustion. Or perhaps I simply became
convinced that nothing was going to change. I remember writing during the Louis
van Gaal era that Manchester United was on a steady decline. At the time, some
may have thought I was being overly pessimistic. Hindsight, however, validated that
concern. Since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club, some 13 years ago, Manchester
United have not won another Premier League title, nor have they gone past the
quarter final of the Champions league (Europe Premier Club Competition). The question
on the lips of many Manchester United fans is: will this club will return to
its former glory? The question that needs to be asked is: whether fans know how
the club was rebuilt?
It’s an
often-common theme throughout history that great empires are misunderstood
after they fall. People debate what could have been done to save the empire
from collapsing. Others also tend to piece together factors in place factors
that cause the Empire to rise up in the first place. As the years pass by, these
think pieces may pass as truth to the younger generation who didn’t experience
such period irrespective of whether it is factual or not. Obviously because
they are constantly repeated. That is why there is a need for the history to be
correctly documented and constantly shared. I take great interest in political
history but lately I have seen myself pivot into football history too. Probably
because like politics, football is made of personalities, institutions, and the
rise and decline of these personalities and institutions.
The story
of the state of my club reminds me so much of Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte, a non-citizen
of France, rose up through the ranks to become the leader of France during a
difficult period. Through his leadership France became the most dominant and
feared nation in Europe. However, one bad strategic decision exposed the
empire’s vulnerability which was concealed - the decision to invade Russia in
1812. The failed decision to invade Russia exposed France’s over-reliance on
one form of strategy, logistical limits and bad planning. This vulnerability
didn’t directly destroy France but then became the motivation that other
countries needed to destroy the French Empire. However, historians have for a
long time debated what could have been with Napoleon’s empire: Could the Empire
have been saved or was it doomed to collapse eventually irrespective of
Napoleon’s actions? Manchester United fans in the same vein, constantly debate
what needs to be done to save the club. Some believe we need to give coaches
time to build a style while backing them. Others believe we are a big club and
thus don’t need to be caught up in a rebuilding and therefore should be
ruthless when it comes to hiring and firing coaches. These arguments may have
legs however what is often neglected is ‘what does history say’?
Most tend
to overlook history with the notion that we are in a different dispensation or
period. This may be true but then looking at factual evidence, one would ask,
is the club’s position really different now than in let’s say 1986 when
Ferguson took over? Between 1966 when Manchester United won its first Champions
league trophy to 1986 when Ferguson took over, Manchester United won only 3 FA
cups as its major trophies, there were no additional Premier league titles or
European titles. Withing that period, Manchester United qualified for the
European competitions 8 times but took part in only 7- one European cup, 4 UEFA
Cups and one Cup Winners Cup competitions. In the 13-year period after
Ferguson, In the 13-year period after Ferguson, this club has
only won 2 FA cups, 2 Carabao cups and a Europa League trophy. This club that
used to qualify for Champions league every season has only qualified 7 times
after 2013/2014 season while having 4 Europa campaigns too. It’s
fair to say both periods are comparable in terms of results and trophies.
Another
angle of comparison is in the financial position.
In this era, we know the impact the Glazers have had on the club incurring
debts and how it has burdened the operations of INEOS who recently invested in
the club. Every fan who follows the clubs know that Manchester United is in a
difficult financial situation now. Let’s now compare the financial situation of
the club now to when Sir Alex Ferguson took over. According to
Ferguson, “When I came, we had no money to compete with Liverpool then, to win the
League we needed to buy. Liverpool was buying the best players, while we had to
build gradually. I knew what I needed to win the league, but it takes time. We
were not financially in the position people think we were. I wanted to buy
players who could help us win the league, but I was disappointed that I hadn’t
been given that kind of money. I knew what I needed to win the league, but it
takes time. You need perseverance.” Again, both periods had the club in
financial difficulties. I am sure the question on your lips is how did the club
rebuild itself then in such difficult conditions?
One
of the key points, Ferguson kept pointing to back then and now was for time (wish
I can capitalize it to stress it more). Sir Alex Ferguson clearly said the lack
of financial capacity signified that the club had to build slowly. So far, we
have established that Ferguson didn’t come to meet a finished empire but a
tattered empire that he had to build. In fact, Rebuilding involved setting a
standard culture for building the club, recruitment, disciplinary code, youth
identification and seamless integration and promotion across various age groups
to finally the first team. This included also identifying
the right football people to work with, the consistency of this process is what
established Manchester United as the trophy winning machine many knew he club
to be. Unfortunately, the constant winning in the past has created a narrative
where fans tend to confuse the success of the club with the existence of the
club. The winnings have created an
entitlement in the fans that the club is supposed to win always, forgetting
that is not a guarantee. Let’s examine what Sir Alex did to bring the glory
days back and compare it to today.
Sir Alex
Ferguson knew that to build a house, you needed to start from its roots which
is the foundation. According to Ferguson, "From the moment I got to
Manchester United, I thought of only one thing: building a football club. I
wanted to build right from the bottom.” Focusing on the foundations of the club
was the difference between building a team and building a club. He clarified
that although winning games was a good thing however it didn’t automatically
signify long term sustainability. This is because with the same frequency at
which you win a game, you can lose a game or go on a losing run too. What
should speak for a manager should be processes laid down- the system of play,
setting and putting down high standards, incorporating youth among other
things. To Ferguson, “winning a game is only a short-term gain – you can lose
the next game. Building a club brings stability and consistency."
As part of
building the foundations, Ferguson built a culture that everyone in the club had
to follow. Integral to this culture was setting high standards for everyone to
follow irrespective of status. Ferguson was always the first to go to work and
therefore his staff and players didn’t have that liberty to be late. “I used to
be the first to arrive in the morning. In my later years, a lot of my staff
members would already be there when I got in at 7am”. Coming to work early
therefore set the platform for his staff and players to copy and follow the
same pattern. This same principle applied to effort shown in training and in
competitive games. He expected a high level of performance from players in
training and then in competitive games with no excuse whatsoever. One of my
favorite Ferguson quotes is that
“If you
give in once, you'll give in twice”
This
message was like a two-edged sword, the first related to the players he had
under his control. He wanted his players to be resilient and never give up in
any situation. Maybe that is what inspired the many late goals (Fergie time
goals) we saw including the 1999 Champions league final win. ’Winning is in my
nature. There is no other option for me. Perfectly happy to lose 3-1 if it
meant we'd given ourselves a good chance to draw or win. So, in those last 15
minutes, we'd go for it (if we are losing). All my teams had perseverance –
they never gave in. It's a fantastic characteristic to have." The second
was a warning to himself that if he relaxes the standards he has set once then
he can relax it another time. One can become two and two can develop into a
habit that would corrupt the entire guidelines he was attempting to enforce.
Maintaining
standards required the coach to be in control at all times, that is what
Ferguson ensured. "If the day came that the manager of Manchester United
was controlled by the players – if the players decided how the training should
be, what days they should have off, what the discipline should be and what the
tactics should be – then Manchester United would not be the Manchester United
we know. There are occasions when you have to ask yourself whether certain
players are affecting the dressing-room atmosphere, the performance of the team
and your control of the players and staff. If they are, you have to cut the
cord. There is absolutely no other way. It doesn't matter if the person is the
best player in the world. Some English clubs have changed managers so many
times that it creates power for the players in the dressing room. That is very
dangerous. If the coach has no control, he will not last.” Ferguson terminated
the contract of Roy Keane after he criticized his team-mates on live
television. He sold Jaap Stam who was arguably the best defender in England
then and at his peak for questioning his tactics. Ferguson sold his prolific
striker Ruud Van Nisterooy for disciplinary issues. Many more players like
Beckham and Rooney faced sanctions for trying to make themselves bigger than
the manager or club. He often used the power of observation in training to
notice the body language of players. He did this by delegating training
sessions to his staff and focus on the little drop of intensity in players, attitude
and then injuries. These observation episodes helped him being in control at
all times.
In as much
as it was important to set a culture and maintain standards, Ferguson knew that
he need quality materials to play his brand of football and win games. In order
to achieve this, he prioritizes players who demonstrated abilities to fit into
the culture he was building rather than just raw talent. His policy was simple
since there wasn’t adequate money to get players, he focused a lot on the youth
from the academy while focusing on getting as much quality there was in the
market to complement and add experience to the squad. The focus on youth was
the springboard for the class of 92. Ferguson valued hard work and good work
ethic a lot because he believed that hard work will beat talent if talent does
not work hard enough. “But there were other players who shared my
determination, who maybe weren’t the best players but they made themselves the
best players, because they had something inside them too.
But then
to instill a good mentality into the club and drill players to follow suit
while building a way of playing was very difficult and it meant that Ferguson
had to be given time to enforce his ideas. The great man himself acknowledges
how privileged he was to be given time. Ferguson revealed that “at some clubs,
you need only to lose three games in a row and you're fired. In today's
football world, with a new breed of directors and owners, I am not sure any
club would have the patience to wait for a manager to build a team over a
four-year period.” In fact, looking at his win percentage before he won his
first trophy in 1991 and then his first league trophy in 1993, gives more light
into what he was saying. His winning rate before winning his first trophy, the
FA cup in 1990, was about 45%. Before the 1992/1993 league winning season,
Ferguson’s win rate was 44.9%. This is against the backdrop that Fergie had
managed more than 200 games. Ferguson was given time and space to achieve his
lofty ambitions of knocking Liverpool off the top of English football- “My aim
was to build the club again rather than to build the team. I was confident that
if we did the first part properly, and people were patient, we’d eventually be
able to have the best team. It was also clear we were not going to be an
overnight success.”
Sir Alex
Ferguson knew that building the club was not a one-day thing or a one season job.
Time was a pivotal pillar in the process of building the winning machine
Manchester United became. Of all the coaches that came after Ferguson, it was
Amorim I thought was building something close to what he (Ferguson) did. It is the
reason why I loved Amorim so much. Another time, I would write about Amorim. I
would end by saying maybe like the French dominance ended with Napoleon’s reign,
likewise Manchester United’s dominance ended with Sir Alex Ferguson’s
retirement!
