=>Un article intéressant sur le travail de SAF pour reconstruire une génération prête à dominer au moins l´Angleterre ^^
" Ferguson´s endless revolution"
By Tom Fordyce
Not all revolutions end with the overthrow of the old leader.
Sir Alex Ferguson is at it again, quietly easing through the latest part of a rebuilding process that has been underway for years and shows no sign of ending.
DIG THE NEW BREED
Cristiano Ronaldo, 18
Darren Fletcher, 19
David Bellion, 21
Liam Miller, 22
John O´Shea, 22
Eric Djemba-Djemba, 22
Tim Howard, 24
Nicky Butt can console himself that he is not the first or the last championship-winning international to be moved out in Ferguson´s insatiable search for honours.
It has happened to David Beckham, Juan Veron, Dwight Yorke, Jaap Stam, Paul Ince and Andrei Kanchelskis.
At Ferguson´s Manchester United, the only real constant apart from the manager himself is never-ending change.
No-one should be surprised that a former trade union shop steward in the Govan shipyards is such a believer in revolution, but most firebrands tend to cool with age.
Not the 62-year-old Ferguson. All his transfer dealings of the past six months are part of his continuing grand plan for the future.
The first generation of fledglings - Scholes, Butt, the Nevilles - are approaching their 30s. Roy Keane is even older.
All are still playing well, but Ferguson has acted all the same. Last week Liam Miller became the fifth player aged 22 or under to join United since the summer.
19-year-old Darren Fletcher and 22-year-old John O´Shea were already on the books; Tim Howard and Kleberson are both a mere 24.
Arsene Wenger follows a similarly youth-orientated recruitment policy, but only Ferguson has been reforming his club so relentlessly and so ruthlessly for so long.
Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit and Nicolas Anelka all left Highbury at the peak of their powers, but that had more to do with the players´ own volition than the manager´s desire to freshen things up.
The ultimate test of a manager is not just to win a league title, but to do so again and again. Wenger is close to that accolade, but Ferguson achieved it years ago.
Ferguson: Forever thinking of ways to improve his team
When great footballing dynasties crumble and fall, it is because the key men are not replaced in time or that the new signings are not up to the old standards.
Liverpool´s run of success in the 1970s and ´80s came to an end when Kenny Dalglish allowed his team to age and then bought poorly to replace the fading stars. David Speedie and Jimmy Carter were nobody´s idea of a long-term solution.
Ferguson, by contrast, has been in charge at Old Trafford for nearly 18 years, yet his team - top of the table and into the knock-out phase of the Champions League - is arguably as strong now as it has ever been.
Twice there have been periods when he seemed to have lost his touch - once at the start of the 1995-6 season, when United were empty-handed from the previous campaign and found themselves 3-0 down to Aston Villa on the opening day of the season, and again after the first 15 games of last season.
On the first occasion United, reinvigorated by the new generation of Beckham, Scholes and the rest, ended the season with the Double.
On the second - with Arsenal leading the league and raking in the plaudits and United being written off by some critics - Ferguson dragged his side back into the title race and eventually secured the Premiership for an eighth time.
Not all of his latest batch of signings will pay off. They never do. Remember Eric Nevland and Jordi Cruyff?
Yet only a reckless man would bet against this most recent revolution resulting in further silverware for the man whose appetite for change makes Fidel Castro look like a kitten.
