Manchester United’s Ferguson, English football’s best manager

LONDON – Manchester United’s record 19th title confirms Sir Alex Ferguson as the greatest manager in English football history, the 36th trophy of a remarkable 25-year reign at Old Trafford that may never be equalled.

While admirers of Bob Paisley will point to the 18 trophies the former Liverpool manager crammed into nine golden years at Anfield between 1974 and 1983, in terms of longevity and volume, Ferguson is in a league of his own.Saturday’s Premier League title was the 12th of Ferguson’s tenure, a spell which has also included two European Champions League crowns, five FA Cups, four League Cups and the World Club Cup.The scale of the achievement is all the more impressive when taking into account the perilous state of affairs at Old Trafford when Ferguson was appointed to replace Ron Atkinson in November 1986.United, who had not won the league title for nearly 20 years at that point, had sunk to 19th in the table out of 22 clubs and had also been bombed out of the League Cup by Southampton.Ferguson’s rebuilding project took time. It was four long years before his first piece of silverware, the 1990 FA Cup, was nestling in the Old Trafford trophy room.Thereafter, the honours came at a steady rate, with the 1991 European Cup Winners Cup — secured with a memorable win over Barcelona – followed by the 1992 League Cup before the breakthrough title triumph in 1993.But the long list of honours is only part of the Ferguson story.Almost as remarkable has been the Scot’s relentless regeneration of United, overseeing a succession of celebrated championship-winning sides, from the Eric Cantona-inspired 1992-1993 side to the 1999 treble-winners and the frighteningly potent 2008 League and European Cup double-winners.In a sense, United’s more recent title triumphs carry more weight.The hat-trick of league titles achieved in 2007, 2008 and 2009, followed by this season’s triumph have been won in an era when United can no longer flex the biggest financial muscles in English football.The arrival of billionaire benefactors at Chelsea and Manchester City has eclipsed United’s might in the transfer market, meaning Ferguson has increasingly had to scour the world for cut-price talent.- Nampa-AFP

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