Informative Essay on Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of...

Sir Alex Ferguson has won more trophies than any other manager in the history of English football and been in charge of Manchester United for over 1000 matches (Alex Ferguson, n.d., para. 1). Sir Alex Ferguson is a successful football manager for four reasons: his ambition, the way he builds relationships with his players, his effective building up of the Manchester United squad and his foresight. The top reason for Sir Alex Fergusons successful managerial career has to be his ambition. A man with an almost obsessive desire to win, Ferguson does not take defeat lightly to the point of becoming unapproachable after a bad game for Manchester United (Ridley, 1996, p. 27). After a defeat, Ferguson will analyse the match to find out exactly†¦show more content†¦45). Ferguson also defended Wayne Rooney after he was accused of striking Boltons Tal Ben Haim in December 2004, claiming that the Bolton player was at fault, and not Rooney. (Man U boss defends Rooney over slapping, 2004, para. 1). The third reason for Sir Alex Fergusons success is his effective building up of the Manchester United squad. He does it in three main ways. Firstly, he does the usual buying and selling on the transfer market. Sir Alex is a shrewd buyer and this is shown in his purchases - Peter Schmeichel cost only  £505,000 but he became of immense value to the club (Ferguson McIlvaney, 1999, p. 307). Ferguson only spends on expensive players when the need is there, for example, the purchase of Ruud Van Nistelrooy from PSV Eindhoven for  £18.5 million to strengthen the squad with the intention to win back the European Cup (Hildred Ewbank, 2002, p. 326). The second way in which Ferguson builds up the squad is to invest in youth players. Right from the start, he was committed to the creation of a youth policy that would be the envy of every other club in Britain (Ferguson McIlvanney, 1999, p. 274). Young players who excel are given chances to break through to the first team squad, for example Giuseppe Rossi who was given the chance to play in Manchester Uniteds Asia Tour 2005 and scored two goals (Brewin, 2005, para. 6). The third way in which