UNITED KINGDOM / FILE: SOCCER - More pressure on football manger Sir Alex Ferguson following Manchester United's European Champions League exit

Record ID: 678113

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM / FILE: SOCCER - More pressure on football manger Sir Alex Ferguson following Manchester United's European Champions League exit
  • Date: 9th December 2005
  • Summary: FILE (MANCHESTER - MAY 1999) (REUTERS) TRACK: FERGUSON ON PITCH WITH FORMER UNITED MIDFIELDER AND CURRENT ENGLAND CAPTAIN DAVID BECKHAM
  • Embargoed: 24th December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA8YZ72I69VBLGH7DU3YS1RHFAX
  • Story Text: Manchester United's exit from European football is a savage blow that will be felt keenly in the club's boardroom and may end manager Alex Ferguson's 19 years in charge.
    Wednesday's (December 7) 2-1 defeat by Benfica deprived United of even a consolation place in the UEFA Cup, let alone the money-spinning Champions League knockout stages.
    United's first failure to reach that stage in 10 years could not have come at a worse time for their new owners.
    Seven months ago U.S. tycoon Malcolm Glazer borrowed heavily to pay 790 million pounds ($1.37 billion) for the most famous club in Britain, and prize money and television revenue from a lengthy European campaign is needed to pay the interest.
    Once the money-making leviathan of English football on and off the pitch, United have also lost their principal sponsor Vodafone and talismanic captain Roy Keane in a matter of weeks.
    Vodafone's deal is being cut short at the end of this season and United, who did not win a trophy last season, will now have to go touting for a replacement without their usual calling card boasting of European football.
    Ferguson helped turn United into the richest and one of the most successful clubs in world football, amassing 22 trophies since coming south from Scotland in 1986.
    He turns 64 at the end of the month and even though United are second in the Premier League, the odds are against Ferguson being around to celebrate 20 years at Old Trafford.
    Now on a rolling one-year contract from June, Ferguson knows his fate lies with the Glazer family whose gaze is firmly fixed on future profit margins rather than past successes.
    Those successes, topped by their Champions League trophy in 1999's Treble year, were built on a core of players Ferguson had coached from young teenagers into outstanding pros.
    Ferguson profited from a golden generation comprising David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers, Gary and Phil, but half of them have now left and the remainder - Giggs, Scholes and Gary Neville - are in the latter stages of their careers.
    Though Glazer's advisers will have detailed United's promising financial position, they may not have realised that, in footballing terms, United are in a period of transition.
    Ferguson's new generation, led by England striker Wayne Rooney and Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo, is certainly exciting.
    But Ferguson has singularly failed to find a powerhouse leader in the mould of former England captain Bryan Robson and Keane to inspire and provide real authority in midfield.
    A lack of experience showed at times against Benfica despite Ferguson taking what he admitted was a risk in playing Neville and Giggs so soon after they returned from lengthy layoffs.
    As for the European campaign, it had been compromised by their home form - winning only one of their three games - and two red cards in draws with Villarreal and Lille.
    Although they possess one of Europe's greatest goalscorers, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and one of the world's finest talents, Rooney, United have been crippled by a lack of goals in key games.
    They are now 10 points behind champions Chelsea in the league and the FA Cup, which starts for United in January, now provides their best hope of a major trophy.
    Whether the Glazer family is satisfied with this rather bleak scenario remains to be seen.
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