Gavin Willacy speaks to Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, who is in his final season at Old Trafford
You’ve bought some world-class players, which means a couple of others are going to have to sit out matches. How do you think those star names will cope with being left out?
Well, it’s not easy for me, I must say that. But I think the players themselves know we needed a challenge in the dressing room, we needed an edge to everything because we’re better when we have edge. We were disappointed to be knocked out of the European Cup twice in a row in the quarterfinals albeit the winners knocked us out both years.
We should have done better and the players know that, I know that, and the fans know that. You can’t kid on. Walking through with blinkers. It’s patently obvious. And it’s only small things, you know. We needed a challenge.
That suggests the team last year could win the Premiership comfortably but you need that extra step to get back to where you were in Europe?
“Yes, I think we’ve got to adjust. Since winning the [European] Cup teams prepare differently against us, making it harder for us, allowing us more of the ball so they can catch us on the counter-attack. So we’ve got to make that sort of adjustment. And some of the time we did that quite well last year but obviously in the game against Bayern at Old Trafford, three minutes to go and we forgot the lesson. If it’d been 0-0 at Old Trafford, I think we’d have gone through.”
You’ve tended to buy one or two players each summer since you were first successful at United. Is that the ideal number rather than ripping it all up and starting again, as Juventus did?
Yeah, I think so, particularly if you’ve got the core. What we’ve tried to do over the years is make sure the team doesn’t break up quickly. We’ve always paid attention to the players’ ages, length of contracts, the quality. And therefore with everything going, you know, quite well, there’s no need to have a mass attack in the transfer market. We’ve done it quite well.
The one time you changed the team dramatically was the year when [David] Beckham, [Nicky] Butt, [Paul] Scholes and the Nevilles came through together. Will that godsend happen again, at United or anywhere, with five England internationals coming from the youth team in one year?
“I think we’re probably the only club in llll England that ll could do l that because our whole history is lllll steeped in our youth. If you go back to [Matt] Busby’s time and all the players that were produced in that era. And we still place a huge importance on youth. So it’s possible we could do it but I don’t think it’s possible at other clubs because I don’t think they place the same importance on young people as we do.
But United are the same as most clubs now in that one youngster coming through each year is the most you can hope for: Wes Brown, then Luke Chadwick
Yeah, and that’s success. What’s happened is the barrier’s been raised and that makes it much harder for the players that come in. But if they’re good enough, they’ll go in. There’s no question about that. I always say the great fear of any footballer is when a young lad comes in and takes their position. And at the moment we’ve got some great lads who will threaten.
Michael Stewart’s a very good player; Luke Chadwick, you know more about him; the young boy Bojan Djordjic; we’ve a young boy coming back from a bad injury, Darren Fletcher; young kid in his first year, Kieran Richardson absolutely outstanding players. John O’Shea is looking terrific in the reserves now. Manchester United, without doubt, want young players in the first team. It’s what makes the whole thing.
Alex Ferguson Player Manager 2001 (a new Sony PlayStation game) is all about picking players and playing, rather than man-management. Which aspect is the most important?
“I think you develop your man-management skills the longer you’re in the game, particularly at the level I’m at now that had to come. You basically learn the game as an instinct. You’ve been a player, that’s your passport, but that doesn’t last long unless you’ve got the ability.
And the players learn to respect you and your knowledge and the work you’re doing on the training field. I’ve always based my managerial philosophy on what goes on on the training ground. Whatever you achieve is through what you do on the training field, and that will never change.
Now that extra part about man-management, player psychology, reading players and the rest of it, they are details that are added on. What you do on the training field is the most important thing.
Graeme Souness said recently Bob Paisley wasn’t particularly good at man-management but was brilliant at picking players, judging who are the best. Do you think you’ve improved at that?
“I think I’m not bad at picking players. I’m not being big-headed when I say that. I’d place an equal importance on that. Souness will obviously know Paisley better than most people but I’d have thought that, unbeknown to Graeme, Bob’s man-management was quite good, whenever it needed to be. He was a quiet man, don’t forget, and he had a good staff. So maybe it was a collective thing that got the man-management part over.
The likes of Beckham, Scholes, the Nevilles should have about another five or six years at this level. How are you going to feel having to leave them?
I’ve got to go sometime obviously, and I’ve picked this time because I thinks it’s the right time. I may be wrong. I don’t know how I’m going to handle it, to be honest with you. I think it’ll be okay, I’m going to stay active. I’ve had a long time and a very successful time and I think you’ve got to pick the right moment.
Apart from winning thelll leaguel andlll the Champions League, have you got any other aims for this season, like seeing Beckham develop or a striker adding more to his game?
The thing we look for when a player gets to the age of Beckham or Ryan Giggs or Scholes or the Nevilles I know this from when I got to their age llllll that thing called llllauthority, playing with llllauthority, which experience gives you. At a good age, 28 or 29, they play with time they give themselves time lllllon the pitch which they never had before. These are the things that will be added to their game in the next couple of years.
It seems Beckham’s getting that already. What do you think he’ll pick up from Juan Sebastin Veron?
“I think David, like all the rest, will want to improve their performances to make sure they stay in the team. That’s the nub of what Roy Keane was talking about challenge. It was good that Roy came out and said, ‘It could be me who’s left out but I’m going to make sure that it’s not’. And that’s the sort of thing we want.
Do you sympathise with the likes of Jonathan Greening and Mark Wilson, who would have got in the team in the past but had to move because the standard is so high?
Well they’ve done the right thing, no question about that. We were just picking our moment but they’ve decided to go now. We’d have preferred to wait a year because when they’re young you never know how they’re going to progress over the summer. But they wanted to leave. Greening’s made comments about whether players can get in the first team and to be honest, he shot himself in the foot. Comparing himself to Beckham and Scholes hmph! was a bad analogy. It’s only Jonathan Greening’s opinions about how he sees Manchester United. I don’t think it’s an accurate one. 365.com