‘I don’t think anyone else will manage for 24 years, I’m a phenomenon’: Fergie

LONDON - Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson opened up yesterday about his amazing career, and predicted that no one would be in a position to repeat what he has achieved in over two decades of football management.

“I was always aware of the history. Matt Busby had a vision of taking United into Europe and producing young players in a conveyor-belt system. They won something like five FA Youth Cups in a row with players who all became famous,” The Sun quoted Fergie, as saying.

“There’s no doubt that, if it hadn’t been for the Munich air disaster, the success would have been phenomenal. I don’t believe in building a team, I believe in building a club - and that comes from youth,” he added.

“People talk about me being one game from the sack, but in my first year, we were a distant second to Liverpool, and I knew I couldn’t win the league with that team.

I was faced with a team who could not accept another challenge. I decided enough was enough and got rid of nine or 10 players and brought in five or six who could be the nucleus of a new team,” Fergie said.

“I don’t think anyone else will manage for 24 years. I’m a phenomenon. I strongly believe in delegation. Twenty-odd years ago I was doing everything at United. I was involved in scouting, youth, coaching. You can’t do that for long periods these days. There had to come a point where delegation was important to me and I trusted the people I was delegating to,” he said. (ANI)