Sir Alex Ferguson has won more trophies than any other manager in the history of English football and been in charge of Manchester United for over 1000 matches (ÃÂAlex Ferguson, n.d., para. 1). Sir Alex Ferguson is a successful football manager for four reasons: his ambition, the way he builds relationships with his players, his effective building up of the Manchester United squad and his foresight.
The top reason for Sir Alex FergusonÃÂs successful managerial career has to be his ambition. A man with an almost obsessive desire to win, Ferguson does not take defeat lightly ÃÂ to the point of becoming unapproachable after a bad game for Manchester United (Ridley, 1996, p. 27).
After a defeat, Ferguson will analyse the match to find out exactly what went wrong. An example of a match analysis can be found in his book ÃÂThe Ultimate TrebleÃÂ. After a 3-1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, he wrote that United could not afford to underperform and that it must never allow its standards to fall (Ferguson & Meek, 2000, p.
Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United F.C.
Carlos Queiroz (left) and Alex Ferguson (right)
Sir Alex Ferguson61). It is common knowledge that players who do not perform well are subjected to FergusonÃÂs infamous ÃÂhairdryer treatmentÃÂ, in which he stands in front of the player and shouts in his face (Ryan, 2002, para. 3).
Sir Alex Ferguson is not one to rest on his laurels. He once said that ÃÂ[f]lash-in-the-pan achievements, such as some good runs in cup competitions, with perhaps the odd winning appearance in a final, could never satisfy [him].ÃÂ (Ferguson & McIlvanney, 1999, p. 242) FergusonÃÂs intention after his European cup triumph was to build a side that could repeat their success again and again and dominate Europe, just like Real Madrid (Hildred & Ewbank, 2002, p. 282). And perhaps FergusonÃÂs desire to see Manchester United win again...