Friday, November 14, 2008

Fifty years of Fergie in football



Saturday 15th November – as well as being the birthday of my oldest son, Simon also marks the 50th anniversary of Sir Alex Ferguson in football (soccer for my friends from over the pond)

I am not going to write much on this posting but I do ask you to read the BBC Report at this link for the full blow-by-blow coverage of the career of this great icon since his debut as a professional footballer in Scotland as a 16 year old in 1958.

Since Sir Alex became Manager at my beloved Manchester United in 1986 he has led the team to these triumphs:

10 Premier League Championships
5 FA Cup final wins
2 League Cup wins
2 European Champions League wins

There simply is no greater manager alive today in British football and I would argue there has never been a more successful manager in football.

The bad news for the rest of football is that Sir Alex at 66 years of age shows no signs of losing his appetite for winning.

Thank you Sir Alex. I hope even your greatest enemies will admit you deserve your success and celebrate this day of glory in your honour

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that some of the best "role models" I had in my life were coaches. Learned a great deal about the correct and incorrect ways to motivate, coach and enable other folks to achieve or exceed their athletic or personal potential. I guess I learned a great deal about being a leader and given his sustained record of superior results I'm sure one could learn a great deal about leadership from Sir Alex!

Happy Birthday to your son Simon and Happy Anniversary to Sir Alex Ferguson! May both have many, many more years of life and success!

Trevor Gay said...

Many thanks Dave – If you ever get the chance to listen to interviews with the likes of world famous footballers David Beckham ands Eric Cantona you will truly appreciate just how great a leader and mentor Sir Alex is.

His total dedication is legendary. The most interesting story I ever heard was of goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel who was a legend at Manchester United in the 1990’s. Schmeichel was a dedicated trainer and was always the first player to arrive at United’s training ground in the mornings. Schmeichel tells of how he always arrived at the training ground by 6.30 am and there was always one car in the car park before him and that was Sir Alex’s car … not only that says Schmeichel the bonnet was already cold on Sir Alex car.

He has got his success through total dedication and hard work. No better role model as far as I’m concerned.