Ferguson the
younger spent 16 years at United helping his brother Sir Alex scout European
talent and Champions League opponents
There was a time when Martin Ferguson’s
fondest wish was to see Pep Guardiolabring his brand of football to Manchester United.
His fervent wish
this weekend is that the charismatic Catalan departs Old Trafford defeated and
disappointed, report the Daily Record.
Ferguson the
younger spent 16 years at United helping his brother Sir Alex scout
European talent and Champions League opponents.
During that time
it was probably the Guardiola-inspired football at the Camp Nou which most
impressed him - out with his brother’s dominant, winning brand in England.
The younger
Ferguson brother decided to visit Guardiola, privately, to talk football, to
talk training and to try to winkle out his perceptions of English football,
back when the Catalan was in what proved to be his last year of contract with
Barça.
(This I know
having set up the unofficial meeting at the then European champions’ training
ground).
Now Manchester City’s ability
to use their Catalan executives, their vast transfer market power and their
exceptional training ground to recruit this serial winner makes Guardiola’s
return to Old Trafford, his sixth competitive meeting with United as player or
coach, one of the most anticipated matches of the European season.
Admirer or not,
Ferguson has not one ounce of split loyalty as to how he’d like this derby
match to turn out.
He’s warming to Jose Mourinho and
sees specific details which make the arrival of Zlatan Ibrahimovic recall an
Old Trafford legend who ‘changed everything’.
“Even if, from my
perspective, I hoped Pep might one day come to United, I not only want them to
win this one against City, obviously, but my feelings about Mourinho are
changing,” he tells me.
“I hope he does
well, I certainly wish him well. While there were some things which, in the
past, I didn’t like about him, so long as he’s successful in the ‘United way’
he’ll get my backing.
“Already I see
that some of the behaviour which was a little eccentric at Madrid and Chelsea
seems to have dissipated.
“He has tidied
up his act. No question that the last couple of games his United have looked
the part.”
Ferguson can
specify things that he’s appreciated about how Mourinho is reshaping things.
Both individually and collectively.
“Watching Mourinho
on the touchline is informative. I see him currently more in control, ‘better’
and that informs you about how he feels about his team and about his own work.
“The impression I
get is that he’ll be a better manager of United that way. Calmer, more focused,
concentrated.
“Speaking
generally, when a manager loses the place, shouting and bawling, it means your
mind is not concentrating on the vital details for periods of the game. I
learned that watching my brother.
“Gradually he
chose to sit back in that box a little distanced from the pitch. Sitting a
little bit above the fray, most of the time, gives a different perspective and
footballers, particularly good ones, switch off a little if you’re on the
touchline yelling at them all the time.
“It was
certainly like this with Alec: that if you go down once in a while to get a
point across strongly, then the players immediately know there’s something
important and instead of just making out that they’re listening they focus,
briefly, on what might be a key instruction.
“My brother
obviously had a fiery temperament, but he definitely scored points by
regulating when and where that showed.”
Which leads to
another factor the younger Ferguson sees and likes about the early Mourinho
reign.
“When Alec came
down to the pitch to remonstrate, particularly in the latter part of a game,
the players all seemed to know that whatever the pattern of that match, it was
‘time to get the finger out’.
“How many times
can you remember United winning with late goals under him? He and they did it
so often that it clearly wasn’t a fluke.
“Whether at Old
Trafford, in particular, or even away, when it came to the last five or six
minutes you’d see teams begin to panic a little.
“Winning,
drawing or losing you’d see rivals tensing up, miskicking things they’d not
have had a problem with earlier on, dropping their level mentally. It became a
big factor.
“Now I like the way United, under Mourinho,
have added that ability to win late again."
He’s talking about the added time win at Hull
last time out, Wayne Rooney’s dash and dribble setting up United’s golden boy,
Marcus Rashford, and he’s thinking of the Charity Shield win over Leicester
when ‘you know who’ headed home a winner with six minutes left.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a player on whom
Ferguson gave a detailed report to Manchester United’s manager back when the
Swede was emerging at Ajax. But such are the vagaries of scouting and the
transfer market. Sometimes it can take 13 years for a recommendation, or even
call it a hunch, to come off.
Right now, it’s simply the case that Ferguson
is enjoying both Zlatan’s impact and the memories it evokes.
“He’s phenomenally talented and I remember
telling Alec after a scouting trip to Amsterdam that this was a ‘player and a
half’. But there’s a difference now.
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“In those days his
personal challenge was to beat every player on the pitch if he could. A pass
was something he possibly wasn’t quite so fond of.
“Right now there’s
absolutely no question that you can see his leadership. He brings people into
the game, his sense of ‘team’ has changed completely - he's a leader, not a
soloist.
“Get the ball to
him near the box and he’s pretty sensational - his talent, height, power and
daring mean he’ll continue to score goals despite coming to us late in his
career.
“Like Eric
Cantona, he just generates confidence around him, he oozes confidence.
“Cantona changed
United in so many ways. He was a catalyst. Both of them have flicks and tricks
but they are tough, mentally and physically, they control the tempo of a game -
and they both set every day standards in training.
“Excellence and
intensity.
“There won’t be
a group like the Class of 92 in the United youth system now but just like those
young players flocked to watch Eric in training I’d hope the youth-team guys,
or the younger first-team guys soak up all the influence possible from Zlatan.”
As far as the
Guardiola-effect at City is concerned, Ferguson likes the environment in which
John Stones is learning and developing and respects the ‘zip’ which the Catalan
has already added to the ‘Blues’ technically-excellent squad.
Kun Agüero
missing, he suspects, may tempt Guardiola to play David Silva, totally
reinvigorated this season, as a ‘false’ No.9 at Old Trafford.
But, that aside,
Ferguson’s wishes are for a home win - although not necessarily as ‘against the
odds’ as his favourite ever Manchester derby.
One year after
Guardiola won his first European Cup, at Wembley in 1992, Ferguson was at Maine
Road to watch his brother’s emerging team.
Two nil down to a
Niall Quinn brace United won 3-2 with a pair for Cantona and, guess what, a
late winner from Roy Keane.
“Magic” he sighs
contentedly at the memory. One which will be updated on Saturday lunchtime.
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