Sir Alex & His Last 4 Seasons
Everyone knows of the dynasty created by Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, the trophies and personal accolades he has won not only at United but Aberdeen as well in his native, Scotland. What we have only noticed now of his greatness is the success he brought to the club in his last 4 seasons there.
Dismantling Of The Last Great Sir Alex Ferguson Team
In 2009, the last great Sir Alex team was dismantled. Cristiano Ronaldo got his dream move to Real Madrid for a then world-record fee. We lost Carlos Tevez too as we didn’t convert his loan move into a permanent signing. With 80 million pounds in the kitty, we were expected to sign big-name players to replace Ronaldo and Tevez, instead, the biggest outlay was for Antonio Valencia and in the same summer, we signed a declining Michael Owen for free and an unknown Gabriel Obertan.
One would say that Sir Alex never signed big-name players unless there was someone with the potential to develop or he signed unknown players that he could develop. Valencia was one such player that could be developed. He was never going to be star material but he served the club very well for a decade at the club. No-one can dispute the consistency, service and effort in his performances and the understated quality to keep things simple. Obertan was a flop and Owen wasn’t the player he was at Liverpool. We finished the season in 2nd place in the league and won the League Cup.
Reaching the 2011 Champions League Final & The Final Hurrah
The following season, we made another bargain buy that turned out to be a gem, Javier Hernandez. We won the league again and amazingly, made it to a Champions League final. We had better quality squads in 1997 and 2002 that fell at the semi-final hurdle but this team made it to the final against the best team at that time, Barcelona. For me, reaching the final of the Champions League with the squad we had in 2011 was a great achievement on its own.
It wasn’t until Sir Alex’s last season in 2012–13 did we sign players that excited, big-name players like Robin Van Persie and Shinji Kagawa. Sir Alex won the league that season and could have gone further than the Round of 16 in the Champions League with better luck.
Now that we see Manchester United struggling after the great man retired, we have come to realise what a great job he did to get the teams he had to punch above their weight. By punching above their weight, he didn’t just settle for finishing in the Champions League or winning a trophy here or there. He got them winning leagues or at least challenging for it. He got them to win other trophies too.
It is only now that we noticed that maybe he too was handicapped by the Glazers. He had an able CEO in David Gill above him. Maybe Mr Gill was also struggling to get the money off the Glazers which is why we didn’t use the money we got from the sale of Ronaldo to sign players of high quality to replace him and Tevez. It is also why Paul Scholes had to come out of retirement to play for us because we didn’t sign a suitable replacement. Neither Sir Alex nor David Gill will come out in the open to admit to being handicapped but you do suspect they were.
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