The lesser known life of Sir Alex Ferguson

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA. – JULY 17: Manager Sir Alex Ferguson during the Manchester United training session at Moses Mabhida Stadium on July 17, 2012 in Durban, South Africa.

Today Man United face Everton,the first game of Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson’s 26th season as United boss.This encouraged me to write a biopic on him.

In this article am going to write about his life before he joined Manchester United, because we all know his heroics at Old Trafford.

He was born on 31 December, 1941 to Alexander Beaton Ferguson and Elizabeth Hardie. He also has a younger brother, Martin Ferguson, who currently is a scout at United. During his childhood, he supported Rangers F.C.

Playing Career

He began his playing career at the age of 16 when he was an amateur at Queens Park F.C. He lost his first game 2-1 to Stanrear, in which he scored his first goal. As Queen’s Park were an amateur team he also worked in the Clyde Shipyards as an apprentice tool-worker, where he became an active trade union shop steward.

Despite scoring 20 goals in his 31 games for Queen’s Park, he could not command a regular place in the side and moved to St. Johnstone in 1960. Although he continued to score regularly at St. Johnstone, he was still unable to earn a regular place and requested transfers. Ferguson was out of favour at the club and he even considered emigrating to Canada. However St. Johnstone’s failure to sign a forward led the manager to select Ferguson for a match against Rangers, in which he scored a hat trick in a surprise victory. Dunfermline signed him the following summer (1964), and Ferguson became a full-time professional footballer.

In the following season with Dunfermline he was the joint top scorer of the Scottish League after scoring 31 goals.

He the joined Rangers for £65,000 which was then a record fee between the two clubs. After a series of bad performances he was forced to play for the club’s junior side instead of the first team.

According to him, he faced discrimination at the club because he’d married a Catholic woman.

The following October, Nottingham Forest wanted to sign Ferguson, but his wife was not keen on moving to England at that time so he went to Falkrik instead. He was promoted to player-coach there, but when John Prentice became manager he removed Ferguson’s coaching responsibilities. Ferguson responded by requesting a transfer and moved to Ayr United, where he finished his playing career in 1974.

Managerial Career

In June 1974 he was appointed the manager of East Stirlingshire at the age of 32 for which he earned £40 per week, though he left the club the same year and joined a bigger club, St.Mirren. He helped the club win the First Division in 1977, but was later sacked due to various breaches of his contract in 1978.

After being sacked from St. Mirren (who are the only club to do so) he became the manager of Aberdeen.

His success began in the 1980-81 season when he won the Scottish league with Aberdeen.The following year Aberdeen won the Scottish league and Qualified for the European Cup Winner’s Cup, in which they impressively knocked out Bayern Munich. They reached the final of the tournament and also won it after beating Real Madrid 2-1.

In the next season they retained the Scottish cup and Fergie received managerial offers from Rangers, Arsenal and Spurs but he rejected them all.

He then became a part of the Scottish national team coaching staff and took over the head coach job after the original head coach Jock Stein collapsed and died in 1985.

He then joined Manchester United in 1986 after Ron Atkinson had been sacked.