SIR ALEX FERGUSON has revealed what he did on January 1 every year that summed up his relentless drive for trophies.
The legendary manager won 13 Premier League titles as Manchester United boss, culminating in his 2013 crown.
Fergie, though, gave an insight into his meticulous preparation and planning by telling Ally McCoist one of his many secrets to success.
And it involved analysing exactly how United’s main rivals will fare in the second half of the season.
Speaking about his final season in charge, the 2012-13 campaign, he opened up on how he had told his wife Cathy he would retire.
And Fergie was confident he would bow out with one last Premier League triumph thanks to his detailed calculations.
Ferguson, 82, said: “Cathy’s sister had died in the previous October and she was lost, she was definitely lost.
“So at Christmas I said to her, ‘Look, I’m going to retire at the end of the season.’
“I knew by her reaction that she was delighted because she was on her own.
“She had given her life to me, everything to me, looking after me because of my job… bringing the kids up.
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“When I said I was going to retire, she was delighted and I knew that. I could tell by her body language.
“I always said when I got to January – what I did every January 1, I wrote down every year where our opponents’ games could be won or lost and I put us down to win by ten points.
“The team was playing really well and I thought we’d do that, but I think it was 11 points.
“They did really well, the team did really well and Robin van Persie was fantastic – his goals, his thrust in the game, his power and confidence.
“The team had perseverance, we never gave in, that’s the quality that great team always had. We had that for years.
“At the end of the day when you look at my career at United, it’s encapsulated by the leagues, but it’s also about myself and the team – we were second in the league six times and won it in the next year.
“Isn’t that amazing? Six times second, twice on goal difference, and we won it in the next year.
“That tells you what that club is about, what these players are about – not just one set of players, that was going back to the 1994-95 team – tough as nails – to the really talented team in 2008 with Carlos Tevez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney up front. They were unbelievable.”
Lo and behold, United did indeed finish 11 points clear at the top of the table in 2012-13 – a year after being denied by Sergio Aguero in the final seconds of the previous campaign.
They clinched the title on April 22 with a 3-0 win over Aston Villa – memorable for that epic Van Persie volley – to move out of reach of rivals Manchester City.
By Phil Thomas
IT is over a decade since he left the dugout but Sir Alex Ferguson has lost none of his sense of timing.
When to sell, when to buy, when to change and ultimately when to go, Fergie has always been in a class of his own.
Over the years there were countless decisions which had everyone scratching their head — but Sir Alex always knew the time was right.
Some were more obvious than others. Like the night Manchester United won the Treble on the back of his substitutions.
Others less so, like the summer of 1995 when terrace legends Mark Hughes, Paul Ince and Andrei Kanchelskis were sold at the peak of their powers.
The whole of football thought the manager had lost his marbles.
But Fergie knew better, as he chose that year to unleash his “you win nothing with kids” Double heroes.
Just as he knew best when it came to right-hand men.
Brian Kidd, Steve McClaren, Archie Knox and Co — an endless list of world-class coaches who all came and went.
And, of course, the biggest decision of all. Calling time on 26 years in which he had gone from the brink of the bullet to English football’s greatest-ever gaffer.
The majority of people are convinced Ferguson stepped down because he knew United’s era of dominance was over.
Maybe not the nosedive to come but certainly that an almighty rebuild was just around the corner. Another mass overhaul, yet not one he was prepared to oversee.
Now another end has arrived. Not as dramatic or as out-of-nowhere, admittedly, but an end nonetheless.
Next summer Fergie will leave his 12-year role as global ambassador. Many see it as the most ruthless swing of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s cost-cutting axe — and they are wrong.
For while he is trying to save every penny in making United great again — how’s that going, Sir Jim? — Ferguson has not suddenly and callously been told he is surplus to requirements.
This decision was a two-way call. An amicable parting. Football’s own conscious uncoupling, in Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow lingo.
And not, incidentally, a departure which means we will no longer see Fergie at Old Trafford on a matchday.
That simply will not happen. He will still be there rain, wind or shine . . .
Only now as a high-profile non-executive director, rather than a man with the ear — and the sway — behind the owners’ biggest decisions.
Like he was when urging United to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021.
Admittedly not his finest hour, rather an indication of the influence he still retained.
Back then, until just before Ratcliffe and his Ineos team arrived, in fact, Ferguson had the owners’ ear. Almost a hotline to the Glazer family, you could say.
And those days are done.
Not that Sir Alex is bereft at the thought. For a start, some of the staff sackings have enraged the Scot — long-serving photographer John Peters and kitman Alec Wylie, for example.
This is not a cosy-cosy relationship with Ratcliffe being severed.
If anything, it is closer to the opposite. And as Fergie the Red, in every sense The Boss — those who played under him still call him that — knows, trousering £2million or so a year in such tight times is not a good look.
Fair enough, not an amount anyone would turn down in normal circumstances.
Yet when many in the steerage class are losing their livelihoods, it is not something that would have sat well with him.
There is also the practical side of things as well.
At the end of December, Sir Alex will be 83 years old, albeit still a freakishly fit 83 years old.
Yet even though the grey matter remains oh-so-sharp and the mind clear as a bell, the bones grow creakier and even Superman had to put his feet up on occasion.
That does not mean you will not see shots of Fergie alongside Ratcliffe at various points — Sir Jim loves too much the associated glamour of being pictured with the greatest.
But any idea of Sir Alex having an emperor’s thumbs-down power has gone for good — and quite frankly that is something which suits both sides.
Ironically, the Red Devils only picked up five points from their final four games under Ferguson – so could have extended the gap even further.
They drew at Arsenal, lost at home to Chelsea, beat Swansea in Ferguson’s Old Trafford farewell and then finished with a thrilling 5-5 draw at West Brom.
In the opening episode of Ally’s Social Club for TNT Sports, Ferguson also said he turned down Arsenal, Tottenham and Wolves before taking the Old Trafford gig.
And he even exposed his genius tactical plan to beat Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final – despite missing key midfielders Roy Keane and Paul Scholes.
Ferguson added: “It’s easy to say this, but the homework won us the game.
“When we did the analysis of Bayern, during big games they used to take the two wide players off and go tight in midfield.
“So, without having Keane and Scholes, I had to gamble with my midfield and I wanted to make sure we had a passing ability and I played David Beckham in centre midfield along with Nicky Butt.
“Nicky would do all sorts of jobs, marvellous, and we played [Ryan] Giggsy wide right and Jesper Blomqvist wide left.
“It didn’t work in the first half at all and I was waiting for them to make a substitution.
“So, the minute they made the substitution I went three in the middle and three up.
“I brought Teddy Sheringham and I said, ‘Teddy you go and play on top of the right centre back, try and pull the right back in,’ who was Markus Babbel.
“With Giggs playing on the left of midfield, it was really suited to him because he was running into the space all the time.
“Beckham on the right side started getting crosses in and in the last 15 minutes we made a lot of chances.
“Having said that, we could have been out long before that – they hit the crossbar, they missed a couple of chances, Schmeichel made a couple of terrific saves.”
