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An open letter to Sir Alex Ferguson
Tuesday, 03 June 2008 00:00
Dear Sir Alex,
As a man with football knowledge that surpasses anyone’s, you will no doubt be familiar with Bill Shankly’s quote regarding Sir Matt Busby;
‘Without doubt, he is the greatest manager that ever lived. I’m not saying I think he’s the greatest manager, I’m saying he is the greatest manager.
Facts can prove that.’
There can be little doubt that should either of those great men still be alive, they would doff their cap in your direction and happily pass on the mantle bestowed by Shankly.
You inherited the bridesmaid club, the perennial entertainers, yet also the perennial underachievers.
A club so awash with talent, passion, and support, it defied itself by not winning the league year after year, but managed to do just that through excesses off the field.
The management skills to take that scenario to one of more silverware than any other manager can put on his CV demands, deserves, and receives due respect.
More such respect was earned along the way as you nurtured the persona of being a no nonsense working class man. One of us. One who’d fight our corner, and you often did.
You talked our language, of knocking Liverpool off their perch, of making United great again.
When titles came, your words and opinions became gospel. When Hughes, Ince, and Kanchelskis were sold, we learned to trust you, and were right to do so.
Then, when the big battles came, you stood by us again. You urged fans to buy shares when the club went plc. When Malcolm Glazer was circling Old Trafford prior to the takeover, you said of the fans fears;
“We’re both of a common denominator - we don't want the club to be in anyone else's hands. I have always tried to be the bridge between the club and the fans and I have tried to support the fans in a lot of their pleas and causes.'
And we had no reason to doubt any of what you said.
Clearly, something has changed.
For all our appreciation of the trophies, for United fans who were around before the fashion for football, supporting United isn’t just about that.
It’s about wanting the team to play a certain way. It’ about winning, yes, but winning in style – as Dave Sexton will testify. And it’s about the fans feeling as much a part of it as the men on the pitch.
Unfortunately, for some, that isn’t an option any more. The owners you now so often find reason to speak highly of have cut off thousands of supporters who love the club, who did so before your arrival, and who will do so after your retirement.
These supporters, and many who can still go to Old Trafford, note with dismay the change from champion of fans causes to the mouthpiece of the Glazers.
The Glazers who have, with all the extra seats, the extra sponsorship, and the extra TV money, see fit to impose price rises way in excess of those the plc ever did, or were likely to do.
The Glazers who, despite not having a net spend of anything like the plc, are praised for backing you in the transfer market. Yet at time of writing the transfers of Rooney, Ferdinand, and Veron eclipse those of any the Glazers have performed.
The Glazers who’s capture of Tevez, Nani, and Anderson was lauded as something that could never have happened under the plc –yet the plc spent more in 2001 than those three combined, without adding the transfer fees to a debt pile, or expecting 40% higher prices to watch them.
The Glazers who you say are excellent for not interfering in team matters, yet who earn your praise for bold yet patently false predictions of Ronaldo’s transfer value dwindling to zero by sending him to the stands.
The Glazers who, you say, of course used debt to buy, as with any takeover, without mentioning that the debt, burdened onto your former concern - the fans - is growing every year, and is of a scale never before seen in football.
The Glazers who, three years into the job, can only point to the AIG sponsorship deal as a positive contribution. A deal that, maybe coincidentally, sees AIG on the shirts of the team bought in part using hedge funds that AIG has huge stakes in.
The Glazers who, despite it being a cornerstone of their business plan, have not grown commercial revenue, and who have actually presided over falling profits, once debt is taken into account.
You may feel that the adoration you earned from success on the pitch gives you the right to expect unquestioning acceptance of your opinions, and that you only have to utter ‘The Glazers are brilliant’ and it will be taken as truth.
Maybe this is also why you attempt to belittle those who criticise the Glazers, be they FC United founders, or those still able to visit Old Trafford, or both.
Maybe in announcing your retirement plans you see the Glazer problem as soon to be someone else’s, and so have no issue with attempting to convince us of their worth in the meantime.
Whatever the reason, please just do what you do best – manage our football club.
It isn’t easy to argue with the man that has given us so much.
However, ask thousands upon thousands of United fans, and they will say the Glazers have been far from ‘brilliant’.
