Sir Alex Ferguson (The Best Football Manager)

6 people bested this!

Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson CBE (born 31 December 1941 in Govan, Glasgow) is a Scottish football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United F.C. He has won more trophies than any other manager in the history of English football and has been in charge of Manchester United for more than 1,000 matches. With 21 years under his belt, he is the second-longest serving manager in the history of Manchester United after Sir Matt Busby and is considered one of the best managers in football.

He has previously managed East Stirlingshire and St. Mirren, before a highly successful period as manager of Aberdeen. He was briefly the manager of the Scotland national team, in a temporary capacity owing to the death of Jock Stein, before becoming the manager of Manchester United in 1986.

At Manchester United, Sir Alex has become the most successful manager in the history of English football, having guided the team to nine league championships. In 1999, he became the first manager to lead an English team to the treble of league championship, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League. As well as being the only manager to win the FA Cup five times, he is also the only manager ever to win three successive league championships in the top flight in England with the same club (1998-1999, 1999-2000 and 2000-2001).

One recurring theme of Ferguson's management of Manchester United has been his view that no player is bigger than the club. He has consistently taken a "my way or the highway" approach in his dealings with players and the pressure of this management tactic has often been the cause of many notable players' departures. Over the years players such as Gordon Strachan, Paul McGrath, Paul Ince, Jaap Stam, Dwight Yorke, David Beckham and more recently, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Gabriel Heinze have left the club after varying degrees of conflict with Ferguson. This disciplinary line that he takes with such highly-paid, high-profile players has been mentioned as a reason for the ongoing success of Manchester United.