Sir Alex Ferguson recently became the first manager inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame alongside Arsene Wenger. The legendary Scotsman only managed Manchester United during his time in England, and won the league title 13 times over the course of his illustrious career.
He was named the manager of the first team on November 6, 1986. But, his early days at the club did not reflect the legacy that he would eventually go on to leave. During the rest of 1985/86 season and the beginning of the 1986/87 season, United would go on to win only 12 of their 40 games – which is unacceptable in today’s age.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s Hall of Fame career at Manchester United
Ferguson was given the most important resource when he was starting out at the club – time. Something that modern managers simply do not have access to, in the age of hiring and firing managers when instant sucess isn’t achieved.
It took some time for Sir Alex Ferguson to truly bond with the players and implement his philosophy. But soon enough, the wins came and turned into titles. In 1999, he received a knighthood in recognition of guiding Manchester United to a historic treble.
Of the 810 Premier League games that he managed, he won 528 of them, and had a win percentage of 65.2%. He was named the manager of the season eleven times, and picked up the manager of the month award 27 times during his career.
Sir Alex oversaw different generations of the team, and produced icons like Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Peter Schmeichel and Edwin Van Der Sar to just name a few. And his time now is undoubtedly one of, if not the greatest managerial spell of all-time.
