UNITED KINGDOM: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Sir Alex Ferguson celebrates 21 years as Manchester United manager on eve of their Champions League match against Dynamo Kiev

Record ID: 784698

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Sir Alex Ferguson celebrates 21 years as Manchester United manager on eve of their Champions League match against Dynamo Kiev
  • Date: 7th November 2007
  • Summary: MILAN, ITALY (MAY 1, 2007) (REUTERS) FERGUSON ON TRAINING PITCH
  • Embargoed: 22nd November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: People,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA7F8R6D5XS4FC16YJR77BPX6E
  • Story Text: The 21st anniversary of Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager overshadowed the preparations for the Champions League Group D match on Wednesday (November 7), when a victory against Dynamo Kiev would secure progress to the knock stages with two games. Ferguson took over at Old Trafford from Ron Atkinson on Nov. 6, 1986.
    His first game in charge was a defeat at Oxford United and his team struggled to become anything but also-rans in the league.
    With the fans turning against him, Ferguson now says that his job was saved by Mark Robins's winner against Nottingham Forest in a 1990 FA Cup tie.
    United surged on to win the trophy that season, Ferguson's first for the club, and followed up with the Cup Winners' Cup a year later.
    From then on the Scot could do no wrong, ending a 26-year wait for the championship in 1993 and reaching the pinnacle with the Champions League triumph and treble in 1999.
    He planned to retire five years ago but decided against it and he remains as passionate as ever about the game.

    "I was older than 21 when I came here...but it seems to have gone quickly," he told reporters at news conference on Tuesday (November 6).
    "It would be interesting if I last 25 years," he added.
    Ferguson was appointed United's manager before some of his first-team players had been born and he is closing in on the record spent in office by Matt Busby between 1945 and 1969.
    Busby, who led United to five league championships and the 1968 European Cup either side of the Munich air disaster, remains an inspiration.
    "I think back to what he actually started, to have the vision to take Manchester United into Europe," said Ferguson, who will be 66 next month but has no plans to retire.
    "He was before his time and beyond anyone's thinking in Britain.
    "That's the real link I've got with Sir Matt, in the sense of the years I've spent here have been about achieving, about entertaining and about meeting the demands of the modern game," said the Scot.
    Ferguson, who guided United to nine Premier League titles, paid tribute to Arsenal, who are setting the pace so far this season and included Chelsea as another potential threat to the defending champions.

    "It is a big challenge. Last year the challenge was Chelsea, this year in this moment and time is Arsenal but I think that Chelsea will be also there," he said.
    With a young team featuring the likes of Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and now reinforced by Argentinian Carlos Tevez, and Brazilian Anderson da Silva, victory against Dynamo should just about wrap up qualification and the chase of a second European title in his reign as manager.
    Kiev, without a win in 10 Champions League games over three years, have lost all three of the current campaign and look unlikely to ruffle the feathers of a United team who overwhelmed them 4-2 two weeks ago in Ukraine. A diplomatic Ferguson, however, was in a special mood to praise his opponents
    "Kiev has a tremendous history and also terrific resources. We went to the training ground, it was fantastic, it was very good."
    Frequently interrupted by an interpreter translating for the Ukranian media, Ferguson never lost his good humour. In the end, he even joked with a loud noise coming from outside the room.

    "Is that a gun salute for my 21 years?", he said as the room packed with reporters erupted in laughter.

    Group F standings P W D L F A Pts
    1 Manchester United 3 3 0 0 6 2 9
    2 AS Roma 3 2 0 1 4 2 6
    3 Sporting Lisbon 3 1 0 2 3 4 3
    4 Dynamo Kiev 3 0 0 3 3 8 0
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