I have to agree with Billie to a point here. Fergie hasn't done an awful lot in Europe CONSIDERING the time and the resources available. Also, he has made plenty of transfer mistakes, but unlike other clubs who would have been relegated for it, he's had the money to buy his way out of trouble each time. He's also made a habit of buying other domestic clubs' best players, not because they needed them, but simply to place the other clubs at a disadvantage. That you have to take your hat off to. However, what really benefitted Fergie most was the twin facets of the advent of the Premier blood-sucking League with SkyTV money and having a great set of youth players all come through the system at once. So yes, he's done a great job, but in many ways he was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Many other managers in the same position would have ended up with the same or better record, but for the history books, it was Fergie who was there.
That's the next thing I'm wishing for.... Then everyone can wear black armbands, 7 mins applause and a bank holiday called red nose day...
Steve, you are very close with your assessment. The media panic is that Scum have died now that their messiah is done. The selection of Moyes is purely because Fergie can control him from above. Be great to ser Scum start finishing outside the Chumps Lge places and lose all that guaranteed revenue. Two seasons of that and they're fcuked. Reason Prem money has been increased from £40m to £60m is to help Scum service the interest on their debt. Irish makes a great point about lack of dignity, probably the biggest reason I don't like Scum ... especially their whining, gloating, glory hunting "supporters" ... they really are a disgrace.
Jugster, your point about Scum buying their way around everything is spot on. It was laughable the way Fergie reacted when Roman came along, whining about how it should not be allowed and how anything Blue Scum wins will be tainted blah blah blah. Suddenly Scum had competition in the spending stakes and Fergie couldn't handle it. He said the same when Citeh got bankrolled, and it fcuks him off no end that he lost the title to them last season. Scum have bought success through excessive borrowing, which is bloody unfair because other clubs aren't allowed their line of credit. Prem needs to go German, where Bundesliga outlaws debt now, and if rules are broken relegation is a punishment. They force their clubs to spend what they earn. Problem is, Scum's debt is so huge they wouldn't be able to reduce it quickly enough to meet any debt free requirements, so Prem will be loathe to enforce a debt free rule because it would mean Scum playing in the Conference.
Howya Billy...another thing that peeed me off about them was when we beat them to the old (proper) division one title. Did he say ah fair play, nope he said that scum had given the title away. Off subject a bit, I saw in the sun paper the other day that in a poll of 700+ premier fans that Don Revie wasn't even mentioned as one of the best managers. Total disrespect IMO...
There's a thread on the Watford forum at the moment re the best British managers of all time, and Revie's nowhere to be seen Some of them even have Graham Turnip Taylor in there
The London media have never forgiven Revie for building a team capable of finishing off the Busby side that was meant to rule for a decade (Best, Charlton, Law, Kidd, Stiles, Stepney etc). The final straw that really made them write poison was Scum getting relegated. All they could come up with was the "Dirty Leeds" tag, conveniently forgetting that most teams kicked and scratched, but few could also play. Leeds could play or battle, you made the choice how you wanted to play and Leeds would front up. Scum have always lacked humility, and for me have no respect. Example - remember when they chose a nothing tournament in Brazil for the money ahead of the FA Cup? Now there's the true side of Fergie!!!!!
Never understood or cared too much about spending so much time hating everything Man Utd, so my own thoughts on Sir Alex are that he is the greatest football manager the UK has ever produced, if not the world. He is a genius at many of the things required to be a top quality football manager and he has shown it time and time again. I hope he enjoys his retirement and that if the Strachan era doesn't work out for Scotland, he comes back to help his country for a few years.
The best at spending money, thus buying success, I doubt he could build a team from scratch with a limited budget like some of the proper manager/coaches of yesteryear did, including the greatest manager to ever live, the Great Don Revie. The so called great managers today simply buy success.
Actually, I think you'll find he had next to no budget at Aberdeen when he not only broke the Old Firm stranglehold, but won the European Cup Winners Cup too. Personally think Jock Stein was the greatest manager ever.
And to take it a step further Shako, we had Venables and Hoddle along with Richard Keys on Aljazeera doing the FA Cup pre and post match preview. They got on about the stadium being magnificent, i think its **** as that walk out on cup final day at the old stadium was always special not only for the players but the manager as well. The traditional song "Abide With Me" was a total **** up IMO, what a pile of crap, then they got on about great managers who lead their teams out.....Bill Nicholson, Berty Mee, Shankly, Paisley, Busby, Fergie etc not one mention of Don Revie, they did however show highlights of 73 and Bob Stokoe running over to kiss Montgomery........****ers, word is that Richard Keys has seen at Doha G.C. playing golf, hope to bump into him in the near future and have a chat with the Peado looking prick.
I'm not saying Sir Don was the greatest ever manager, Trophy wise he isn't, but he put Leeds United on the map and I feel he deserves a bit of respect and should at least get a mention.
We've a load of them over here and most have never bothered their arses to travel over. If the scum lose, they leave the pub straight away, they can give a slagging but can't take it. Hate them and if any Leeds United fan has to ask why we hate them or can't understand why we hate them, then he isn't a Leeds United fan...
