Wilf: Fergie´s The Best Of The Bunch
Wilf heaps praise on Fergie
" Given the success Sir Alex has had in terms of winning trophies, he must go down as the greatest manager we´ve ever had at this club." - McGuinness
I´d like to say congratulations to Sir Alex on making it to 1000 games. It’s a fantastic achievement particularly in this day and age.
Sir Matt Busby spent 25 years at Old Trafford which was wonderful. He was a tremendous manager and the time I spent working with him was the happiest time of my life. But also I know only too well how hard an act he was to follow. He was a gentle Scot in many ways, but he was also quite a hard man when he needed to be.
Sir Matt possessed these special qualities that allowed him to withstand things and go on and make things happen at this club and Sir Alex has done the same. He´s done this through self-belief and also the belief of how he thinks the game should be played and how the team should play. That seems to be why he’s been able to handle the managerial role so well and become so successful.
My best memory of his time at the club is the obvious one - the Treble! I was with manager at the reception to celebrate the team winning the European Cup in Barcelona a few hours after the final - it was a fantastic night. To win the Treble inside those eleven wonderful days at the end of the 98/99 season was the greatest achievement in Manchester United’s history.
Alex is certainly the greatest manager there’s ever been in the modern-day era. There have been some fantastic managers over the years such as Clough, Shankly, Paisley, Stein and of course the great Sir Matt Busby, but given the success Sir Alex has had in terms of winning trophies, he must go down as the greatest manager we’ve ever had at this club. As for the future, well Alex will know when the time is right to finish. But after all he’s done for United and providing he feels well enough, he deserves the right to carry on until he says he’s had enough.
Back on the pitch it was good to see the team secure another win over Charlton, but I still think we’re not quite there yet. However, the good thing is we’re picking up the points. Charlton have done well over the last few years in the Premiership but they came to Old Trafford with very negative intentions. When teams play very defensively against us we’re finding it difficult to break them down, more so than we used to. In the past we seemed to be able to get in behind teams much more easily especially when our midfielders were scoring goals all the time.
I was pleased to Paul Scholes back on the scoresheet but I would still like to see him get nearer to the centre-forwards. He’s got the shooting power of Bobby Charlton and overall he’s such a wonderful goalscorer even though he’s struggled at times for England and more recently United. Over the years Scholesy has popped up with some cracking goals and some very important ones as well. Now he´s off the mark for this campaign, he’s more than capable of banging some more in this season.
The same can be said for Ryan Giggs, who I still think is one of the best in the business at running with the ball which more often than not it leads to a goal. He’s been doing it throughout his career and he still excites us all when he´s on form - I hope he gets his new contract sorted out because, like Scholes, he´s still got plenty left in him at the top level. Any criticism of Ryan and Paul is very harsh, particularly after all they’ve done for the club. They´ve both got a lot to offer the team and I think they’ll prove that in Europe this season.
The results at the weekend showed that the title race is far from over and another few days like that will certainly make for an interesting second half of the season - anything can happen in the Premiership. Chelsea didn’t play particularly well at the start of the season yet they were still picking up the points, while Arsenal were murdering teams left, right and centre and it looked like nobody was going to catch them. But Chelsea have already caught them and have now gone ahead. So it just shows you that anything´s possible.
For me, the game with Lyon is the one that counts. We’re up against a very good team, who we were fortunate to get a draw with back in September. But we know what we’re capable of in Europe especially at home and a victory on Tuesday night would be a tremendous boost for us. Knowing that we’re through to the next stages of the competition as winners of the group could set our season up and lift the whole club and the fans.
ce soir on va gagner !
