Sir Alex Ferguson broke down the reasons for his incredible success as a manager and what made him o

Publish date: 2024-06-30
2021-05-27T11:37:00Z

Sir Alex Ferguson is, without doubt, the most influential manager in the modern era of British football. 

In 27 storied years as Manchester United boss, Ferguson won the Premier League title 13 times, the FA Cup five times, the League Cup four times, and the Champions League twice. No manager in recent years even comes close to such a stellar record of success.

During his tenure, Ferguson became famous not only for his tactical nous, but also his incredible leadership and man-management skills.

In his final season in charge, for example, United won the Premier League by 11 points with a team of aging stars that under most managers would likely have finished in the chasing pack. A virtually unchanged squad finished seventh in the league the next season under Ferguson's successor, David Moyes.

So known were Ferguson's management skills that after he retired in 2013, he began teaching at Harvard Business School, lecturing some of the world's most-powerful executives on leadership.

Ahead of the release of a new film about his life, directed by his son Jason, Ferguson sat down with Insider — alongside his friend and billionaire tech investor Sir Michael Moritz — to talk leadership, and reflect on his incredible life and career.

In a wide-ranging interview, Ferguson touched on subjects including the brain hemorrhage he suffered in 2018, taking inspiration from Nelson Mandela, and the sacrifices he made to be arguably the best manager in soccer history.

You can see all of Insider's coverage of our interview with Ferguson here:

Below is a transcript of the conversation between Insider, Sir Alex Ferguson, and Sir Michael Moritz (some comments have been lightly edited for clarity):

Sir Michael Moritz: Why don't we start with the film? Are you a big movie goer? 

Sir Alex Ferguson: I've always loved the movies. My favourite movie? The Godfather is hard to be beaten, of course, but 12 Angry Men. Henry Fonda, it was a great cast.

Films about leaders. I was fascinated with JFK when he was president. People don't maybe recognize the era he lived in, because he had to deal with the Cold War, Vietnam, racism, Medicare, the rail strikes, and Cuba. You know, it was an amazing challenge for a young president.

Long Walk To Freedom about Mandela. I met him three times he was an amazing person really. So yeah, I like the movies.

Moritz: Other particular movies about sports or sportspeople?

Ferguson: America are good at sports movies, like Hoosiers, with Gene Hackman, was the one with the baseball player.

Moritz: Jackie Robinson? 

Ferguson: Right. Rudy was a good story. These were movies I enjoyed watching, you know. 

Moritz: Did you ever see the movie about Senna? The race car driver?

Ferguson: Yeah, that was another good one. There's been a few really good sports movies.

Moritz: Another one I love was Weekend of a Champion with Jackie Stewart. It was film by, of all people, Roman Polanski, in 1972. It's a classic. It's one of the great, great movies about sports. 

Ferguson: I've never seen that one, Mike.

Moritz: Anyway, did you think before all this came about, had you thought about telling your story to other filmmakers?

Ferguson: No, Jason was the driver of the whole thing. For a couple years he did the audios. In my career, it was something I'd never thought about as a manager, I never looked back. I was always looking to the next day. 

Jason gave me that opportunity to reflect on the career. I found it, you know, he did a great job. I really found it quite interesting. 

Moritz: How did it start? With the thought of a movie? Or was it just a collection of audio interviews that were just recollections of life?

Ferguson:  I think Jason had it in the back of his mind, but he spoke about doing the film and introduced me to [producers] Andrew MacDonald and John Battsek.

And at that point, I was quite open and it was a quite casual thing, but the two guys, they knew the business, they had a good track record, and I enjoy their company too. So it was easy to say yes. 

The big thing for me was when Jason came to me and said, 'I'm gonna direct it.' And I was really pleased because I knew I could trust him, he knew me better than anyone, and he wouldn't hold back to make a glossy type of film.

All things being equal, I was pleased to get get it going.

Ferguson kisses the Champions League trophy. Getty Images

Moritz: Had you started doing the audio taping before your health scare?

Ferguson: Yes, 2016. I think it was two-and-a-half years [before] or something like that. The brain hemorrhage it started three years ago. 

Moritz: Did Jason have a different idea for a movie before the hemorrhage?

Ferguson: Sure it changed the direction in which he was going. He'd only accepted actually to do with whole thing with Andrew MacDonald and John Battsek the night before. And then he gets a call from Cathy [Ferguson's wife] that I had fallen, and therefore, the whole drama unfolded.

He called the ambulance and at that point that I didn't know a thing. The last thing I remember is falling. And Jason says I was bumbling nonsense, you know, rambling on about my memory and things like that. And they took me to the hospital where they realised it was a brain hemorrhage, and they alerted the team at Salford Infirmary who got ready for me to go across and get everything done.

Moritz: Now, one of the things I wonder watching the movie was, you know, for somebody like you, you've spent your whole life in control, basically. And your whole life leading other people. Was this the sort of first time that you ever felt that you weren't in control of things?

Ferguson: Absolutely. I was lost, really. I mean when I woke up hours later after the operation. You feel loneliness because you lie in your room, and they tell you what you've done and certain things about the operation.

But when you're in the bed and you're thinking to yourself: 'Are they telling me the truth?'

You feel isolated, and I did feel vulnerable. I always remember, when my father had cancer, they never told him that he had cancer. So he asked me, and I didn't know how to answer him, you know. So I'm thinking, my father would have been feeling exactly the way I feel, lonely and vulnerable.

Moritz: Do you remember a time during your managerial career where you didn't feel in control, or you had to look to others for the answers or the solutions like you did when you were in the hospital after the hemorrhage?

Ferguson: I was a manager for 39 years, and although I valued my staff, and I enjoyed listening to them, at the end of the day, it was always going to be my decision.

And I was always making sure that I wasn't putting any of that pressure on the staff to make that final decision. That was always myself.

Moritz: Do you remember the sensation of trying to come to grips with the fact that your fate was now in the hands of other people who were decades younger than you?

Ferguson: Absolutely. When you when you're walking down the street and you feel fit, you never think the end's coming. You're going to football matches or you're going for a meal and you never think that something like a brain hemorrhage is going to be thrust upon you.

It was sudden, and there is nothing you can do but to trust the nurses and the doctors to sort you out.

And that's the point I'm saying about loneliness, when you're on your own then, that question enters your mind: 'Am I going to go be alright?'

You know, because just two days ago I was fit as a fiddle, playing a game of golf sometimes, on the bike and exercising, you never anticipate it was going to happen like that.

Ferguson celebrates winning the FA Cup in 1999, part of the club's legendary treble that year. John Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images

Moritz: Was their anyone on the medical team you thought, they're real leaders? I can really trust what you know, they've got the authority of being leaders, and I'm prepared to really trust what they say?

Ferguson: The team was led by Joshi George, excellent man. Everyday coming to see me. Nadia was [another] one of those surgeons who was coming to see me. 

And the even after I left the hospital, he made the point of coming to see me, and me come to see him, asking me all the questions, 'How do you feel?' They showed a lot of care.

About a year and a half later, I thought it was a good idea to come and meet all the staff who were involved in the operation. And it was somewhere around 30-odd, including porters and the ambulance driver. There was a lot of people involved in keeping me alive.

I found it really exhilarating because I was the appraiser going round shaking their hands and thanking them. It was a lovely moment, and they appreciated me taking the time to thank them too. But it just shows you how many people it needs to do big operations like that.

Moritz: One other thing that struck me about the movie was that since you retired from managing United, you've been watching other people lead. That's a very big adjustment for somebody who has spent their entire life, 39 years, being watched by others. How do you feel it's easier for you to watch today than it was say, in the first year after, after you retired?

Ferguson with his son Jason at the world premiere of 'Never Give In' Getty Images

Ferguson: I think the first year was pretty strange. And I'm not, I'm not being critical, but when I saw some of my players actually leaving the club, I didn't quite enjoy that, you know, as in: 'Why?'

I mean, these guys have won the league by 11 points. Give them another year. That was hard to accept.

In football, every manager his own way, his own staff, his own beliefs, and that's absolutely correct to have that independence and your own beliefs. That passed quickly [Ferguson's unhappiness at the removal of the players]. When the team shaped itself in a different way, I enjoyed going to the games, that was behind me.

There was no need for me to think about what I could have done, because it was over for me. I was happy to go to the games, have my lunch before the game, have a glass of wine, and enjoy myself.

Moritz: Do you have advice for others who have long distinguished careers and then need to step away and adjust to a new role?

Ferguson: Depends on your age. Some former managers lose their job quite early, like Brian Robson [a former Manchester United player under Ferguson who has had brief spells as a manager at four English clubs].

He hasn't gone back into management. He does a a lot of work for United of course.

But if you're of an age where, you know, you don't want the rigors of dealing with the day-to-day handling of present day footballers, fans, agents, I think my advice is to put on your slippers, relax, but you know, just be active.

You've got to be active. If you take up training and wake up, go on the bike, or do exercise with weights. You can't just wither away. You've got to have something that motivates you.

Ferguson watches a Manchester United game alongside Brian Robson. Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images

Moritz: What did you tell Jason at the end [of the film]?

Ferguson: I told him it's fantastic. You've done a great job. And I was proud of him and that he's got that ability. He knows the industry, even though he's only been doing it for a while. He did a really good job.

Moritz: Were their clips from the past that Jason had dug out from way back that you didn't even know existed or surprised you when you saw them in the movie?

Ferguson: When he came to see me to show me the clip of me reading at the Apprentice Strike, I couldn't believe it. I said. 'Where did you get that?!'

He said he researched and it came with on ITV or some Scottish television or something like that. And that was great.

And that's a moment which I was proud of, because at the time, and I go back to 1966, a lot of apprentices at this time were very young and some had one, two, maybe three in a family. And of course, the shout was about better conditions, better financial conditions. And I felt that was worth supporting. 

Moritz: Do you ever think about it as a love story? 

Ferguson: Well, it's the love of the game, and and the love of family that come across, and we have a very close family. So that that comes across very much.

As Cathy will tell you, I sacrificed my adult life to being a football manager. Cathy really brought the kids up, you know. So with that, I can understand the comment of it being a love story, because there's so much love there.

Sir Alex Ferguson spoke to Insider ahead of the release of his new movie, "Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In." The film is out in cinemas in the United Kingdom on May 27.

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