Glory, Glory Man Utd. Harry Harris
receiving a mixed reception when he boarded the open – top bus. Speaking to MUTV, he said: “It is a fitting tribute to the manager after so long and so much success. As much as it is for the team, itʼs for the manager, for himself, what he has achieved and what he has done to this football club. He deserves everything he has got. He has been brilliant for us all. He is a great manager, he is successful and he is a winner. To do it for so long is incredible, he is a fantastic manager.”
“Manchester United have a bright future,” Rio Ferdinand told MUTV. “The manager has left the club in great health and we are looking forward. We have a great number of good young players who are eager to win things and be successful and work hard. That is what the manager has instilled in these players. The work ethic has to continue if we are going to be successful. I would like to be part of that.” Rio had tweeted pictures of him and his team – mates in the pub in the early afternoon prior to the parade. Rio has now won as many championships as Kenny Dalglish, “I dreamt of getting one when I turned up here. I remember looking at Ryan and the others when I arrived. At that stage they had five, six or seven. I just wanted one. I thought I would be happy with that. But once you get it, you want another. You continue striving to succeed, to achieve things and win trophies. To get six is unbelievable. But that is the main thing at this club, you want to be successful.”
As for Sir Alex, Rio commented, “There have been a couple of emotional moments. The managerʼs announcement was like a bolt out of the blue. No one was expecting it. It disappointed a lot of us but I understand the managerʼs reasons. He has had a great stint and an unbelievably successful period. He instilled great qualities in the club and we must carry that on.”
Ryan Giggs felt the reception topped the one in 1999: ʼThanks for coming out. I thought Iʼd never see anything like the treble again but this beats it. It is just brilliant. It gives us a chance to share with the fans a great achievement this season. It is an amazing atmosphere.” As for Sir Alex, he added, Giggs said: “It has been tough, especially for the players who have known him for a long time. We are delighted that we were able to end on a high and win the league in his last season.”
1,500 Games And Out
SIR ALEX EVEN SURPRISED HIMSELF. He was taken aback as he tried to take in his own incredible milestone as he bid his third and final farewell at the end of a marathon career in management.
“Quite incredibleʼ, is how Sir Alex described his remarkable longevity at Old Trafford. The 1,500th game of his Manchester United career; a simply staggering statistic, and one the football world knows will never be repeated at this footballing institution or indeed anywhere else around the world
As he prepared for the final Premier League game of Unitedʼs championship season, effectively his third and final farewell following the Old Trafford goodbye, the victory parade and now the final farewell at The Hawthorns, he commented, “So my last game, 1,500 matches – quite incredible.” Yes, quite right. Quite remarkable.
Typically, he wasnʼt looking for yet another party, although he was going to get one whether he liked it or not, but as usual he was seeking all three points, even though his team didnʼt really need them. “I want to win this one more than last weekʼs even,” he remarked, and whoever was digesting that comment would be wondering why he was bothering. But Sir Alex always bothered, it is in his DNA, when it came to winning football matches, he took that task deadly seriously irrespective of the circumstances.
There was a sense that Sir Alex had suffered sufficient emotional highs to live with him for the full term of his retirement, and that one more would be over the top. Sir Alex said, “Sunday was amazing and the parade on Monday, it was incredible, even better than 1999. I thought the scenes after the treble in 1999 couldnʼt be beaten but I think Monday probably did. I went home that night and got 10 hours sleep for the first time in my life. It was marvellous, really good.”
Relaxed in his final press conference, the usual Friday morning before a weekend game, this meeting with the media was different, the last time under the usual circumstances, a match to preview; an uncomfortable chore usually in his lovehate relationship with the media. He used the media for his mind games, but deep down detested them for the damage that could be done when sensitive information leaked out of his dressing room, no matter how hard he tried to keep a lid on it. Now, at a time for reflection, he had a captivated audience. It was always going to be vastly different than the norm, and thatʼs precisely how it began with Sir Alex was applauded into the room and given a bottle of wine and a cake, presented by The Sunʼs Manchester based correspondent, Neil Custis, who has the distinction of being banned by Sir Alex more times than anyone else, estimated at seven times, but it had occurred so often that the reporter himself had lost count.
So, on this rare, special occasion, there was not the usual tea or coffee at the training ground for his media briefing, but wine, served in plastic cups at nine in the morning. At his previous press conference, Sir Alex poured champagne for the media to celebrate the 20th League title and then suggested the Greater Manchester Police would be waiting with breathalyzers at the end of the single – track road that leads to the Carrington training complex. Of course, he was jesting. Or was he? Sometimes you couldnʼt tell.
Neil Custis is a nice chap, one of the newspaper pack I have known for some time, and one of those I can trust, which marks him out. Presenting the cake Neil spoke for the rest of the reporters by saying, “Itʼs been a rollercoaster ride and it mirrors Manchester United for all of us. Thereʼve been highs and lows, but I think when Sir Alex has been on form with us anywhere from Carrington to Kansas, from Turin to the Temple of Doom he has brought drama heʼs brought colour to our pages. When heʼs been on form itʼs been gold. He has left us with phrases that will go down in the annals, and he has left us all with squeaky bum time on occasions! In years to come all of us will look back and feel privileged that we did this job at a time when this manager was manager of this football club, and for that, we thank him.”
Sir Alex might have some private views about the media, and their attitudes toward him and his club, and the complexities of how his views have been interpreted over the years. This was not the time nor place to express them, rather to accept the cake in the spirit it was accepted, irrespective of whether he might have wished to splash that cake in some of the assembled faces, the way some of the more unsavoury headlines had been splashed across the back, and often front pages of their newspapers.
Instead Sir Alex put the media into perspective when he said, “Dealing with the modern media is difficult for managers and Iʼve been lucky that Iʼve integrated into all the different stages in my time here. It got me in a position where sometimes I donʼt accept what you write and sometimes when you write nice things, I tend to dismiss it also. Iʼve always thought youʼve had a terrible job, a difficult job with the pressure youʼre under with modern television, the internet, Facebook and all the rest of the nonsense. But Iʼve never held grudges. Even when Iʼve banned people, I donʼt hold grudges as itʼs not my style. I react and then forget about it sometime later. Thanks for the kind words Neil, it was very good of you, and thanks for the time Iʼve had here.”
This was more a time for Sir Alex to reminisce, as he went on, ʼThirty nine years as a manager and from that day staring at East Stirling with eight players and no goalkeeper to today six ʼkeepers and about 100 players , if you count the academy. I remember the old chairman; he was a great chain – smoker. I asked him for a list of players he had and he started to shake, his cigarette was going 100 miles an hour. He gave me a list of eight players with no goalkeeper. I said: ʼYou know itʼs advisable to start with a goalkeeperʼ. That was an education that. It was fantastic. Anyone starting in management should start that kind of way but I donʼt suppose it is that way now.
“Iʼm driven to take on some challenges and some other things right away. Iʼve got the league managersʼ meeting on Monday, Newmarket Tuesday and Wednesday. Iʼm going on holiday, itʼs the Derby on 1 June, then the operation, then the recuperation, then the season starts. It canʼt be a substitution, itʼs a different life.ʼ
Following Sir Alex, and Scholes, David Beckham announced his retirement also going out on a high after his team Paris St. Germain won the Ligue 1 title becoming the