It is 40 years ago today since Manchester United appointed Sir Alex Ferguson as manager and ushered in the most successful era in the history of the club.
The parallels with the current situation at Old Trafford are striking. United have made their worst start to a league season since then, with just one win from their opening nine games, and Michael Carrick is fighting to save his job, just as Ron Atkinson was on the brink in November 1986.
United had rejected Big Ron’s offer to resign towards the end of the previous season. However, with the team only staying out of the relegation zone on goal difference, the club decided to sack him following a 4-1 League Cup defeat by Southampton.
Atkinson felt the seeds of a decision that would change the course of United’s history had been sown a few months earlier when he was working as a TV pundit at the World Cup in Mexico and Aberdeen boss Ferguson was in temporary charge of Scotland, following the sudden death of Jock Stein.
‘Lawrie McMenemy, also on the World Cup beat as a TV pundit, revealed he had heard Alex Ferguson had already been tapped up for my job,’ Atkinson later wrote in his autobiography.
‘I haven’t lost any sleep about the shenanigans surrounding my premature departure. I don’t blame Alex one bit. It’s all part of the management game. Somebody is inevitably waiting to nick your boots in this business.’
It is 40 years since Manchester United secretively lured Sir Alex Ferguson from Aberdeen
Club director Mike Edelson put on a fake Scottish accent to get through to Ferguson’s office at Aberdeen, posing as Gordon Strachan’s assistant
Atkinson’s suspicions were founded on a conversation between Ferguson and United director Sir Bobby Charlton in Mexico. Ferguson confirmed the chat, but disputes its significance.
‘That’s not true,’ Ferguson wrote, addressing Atkinson’s claim in his book Managing My Life. ‘Although Bobby did speak to me at the side of the pitch before Scotland’s fiasco of a game in Uruguay, the furthest he went was to ask that if I ever decided to move to England, I should let him know. I don’t think that could be considered an offer.
‘Apart from the brief contact with Bobby, there was nothing but rumour to link me with Old Trafford before November 5.’
Charlton’s recollection also suggests it was incidental. ‘I was working for the BBC and I went to watch Scotland train,’ he told Daily Mail Sport in 2011. ‘He saw me through the fence and came over to say hello. We only spoke for a minute or so, but I liked him.
‘I also recall going to Aberdeen once, to open a garage of all things. The people there were panicking. “You’re not here to take our manager, are you?” The whole city seemed to be in love with him. I stored that away, too.’
Atkinson viewed Charlton as an adversary in the boardroom. When he returned from Mexico keen to complete the signing of England centre back Terry Butcher from Ipswich, using money earmarked from the £2.3million sale of Mark Hughes to Barcelona, Charlton was the main opponent to the move.
Chairman Martin Edwards pulled the plug citing a lack of funds due, in part, to building a new museum at Old Trafford. ‘We’ll bring the museum up for a corner then!’ Atkinson replied.
Having decided a change of manager was needed, United favoured Ferguson over Terry Venables, but were anxious to make sure the 44-year-old wanted the job having drawn a blank with McMenemy, Bobby Robson and Ron Saunders before appointing Atkinson five years earlier.
Club director Martin Edwards spoke with Fergson and met him with a secret delegation at M74 services in Lanarkshire
Ferguson pictured with Graham Hogg (right) in his first week of training at Man United
Edwards, Charlton and fellow directors Mike Edelson and Maurice Watkins hatched a bold plan to get through to Ferguson’s office at Aberdeen by posing as Gordon Strachan’s accountant.
Edelson, who put on a Scottish accent to make the call, said: ‘It suddenly got very embarrassing when the receptionist started asking me personal questions about how my wife was. The other three were rolling around. But she put me through, Alex answered, I quickly explained who I really was and then put him on to Martin.’
Ferguson recalled taking the call in his office. ‘Martin Edwards gave me his number so I could ring him back and thus be assured of the authenticity of the call. I could scarcely contain myself as I dialled the Manchester number. Would I be interested in the job at Man United? Yes, I told him without hesitation.’
Ferguson immediately told his No 2 Archie Knox, but admitted that when he told his wife Cathy she was ‘devastated’ because the family were happy in Aberdeen.
It was her reluctance to move to London that had previously persuaded him to reject Arsenal and Tottenham but this time the opportunity was too good to refuse.
Ferguson arranged to meet the four-man delegation from United at 7pm that night at Hamilton Services on the M74 in Lanarkshire, where they would recognise each other using their car registrations. ‘It really was a case of flashing headlights,’ said Edelson.
Edwards got into Ferguson’s car and the others followed to the home of Cathy’s sister Bridget in the Bishopbriggs suburb of Glasgow.
Ferguson revealed he was offered a ‘disappointing’ salary that was less than he earned in Scotland and had no transfer budget. United also refused his request to buy the family home to ensure a quick sale, or pay back a £40,000 loan from Aberdeen, but he accepted the job anyway.
Ferguson surrounded by photographers in his first game in charge – they lost 2-0 against Oxford United at the Manor Ground
He became the most successful manager in English football history, winning 13 Premier League titles
United’s directors drove back to Manchester that night and Edwards sacked Atkinson at 10.30am on the morning of November 6. Edwards then caught a 2pm flight to Aberdeen with Watkins, who was also United’s solicitor, to conclude the deal with Aberdeen chairman Dick Donald.
Meanwhile, Atkinson was clearing his desk and saying his goodbyes at United before organising a farewell drinks party at his home in Rochdale which was attended by a number of United stars and went on a lot longer than planned.
‘It turned into an all-night rave with more than a hundred people packed into the house and lasted until 5am,’ Atkinson recalled.
There were a few sore heads when a nervous Ferguson gathered the players together on November 7. He was well aware of the drinking culture at Old Trafford and what he felt was Atkinson’s liberal attitude, based on information fed to him by Strachan, who had left Aberdeen for United two years earlier.
‘He cited all sorts of problems with the team, particularly the drinking and the alleged indifference of Big Ron to its damaging effects,’ Ferguson wrote.
‘The training, Gordon suggested, was a shambles, with nothing done until Ron had a session on his sunbed as a preliminary to joining in a small-sided practice game.’
Clamping down on the boozing was one of the first items on Ferguson’s agenda, but not before he banished bus driver Derek Sutton from sitting on the bench following his first game at Oxford 48 hours after being appointed.
It ended with a 2-0 defeat followed by a goalless draw at Norwich as Ferguson made an inauspicious start to a glittering career spanning 26-and-a-half years. His first game at Old Trafford brought a first win, beating QPR 1-0.
In a new book, Fergie: The Lost Tapes, author Wayne Barton has gone through 400 hours of recordings and unearthed a long-forgotten address by the new manager to United fans that day which has echoes of the farewell speech he made on the pitch in 2013.
‘Hello, Alex Ferguson here. I don’t need to tell you how important this day is to me. This is the greatest experience of my life, to be in front of this platform and this stage.
‘Since I’ve arrived here, I’ve been so aware of the traditions and success of this great club. My job is to make sure that success continues and to make us the greatest club in Britain.
‘The real supporters of Manchester United are the greatest in the world – don’t let anyone forget it.’
