Sir Alex Ferguson talking about the one thing he took from his time at Rangers

Its clear that regardless of the outcome of his time here it stood him in good stead moving forward. Love him or hate him he was an extraordinary manager, and in spite of my dislike for United, I miss having SAF in the game. Characters like him are becoming fewer and fewer in football.
 
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Pirlo said:
Its clear that regardless of the outcome of his time here it stood him in good stead moving forward. Love him or hate him he was an extraordinary manager, and in spite of my dislike for United, I miss having SAF in the game. Characters like him are becoming fewer and fewer in the game.
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100%
 
Pirlo said:
Its clear that regardless of the outcome of his time here it stood him in good stead moving forward. Love him or hate him he was an extraordinary manager, and in spite of my dislike for United, I miss having SAF in the game. Characters like him are becoming fewer and fewer in the game.
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Must admit I have warmed to Sir Alex over the years no doubt someone will bring the story up about his Wife.
 
Pirlo said:
Its clear that regardless of the outcome of his time here it stood him in good stead moving forward. Love him or hate him he was an extraordinary manager, and in spite of my dislike for United, I miss having SAF in the game. Characters like him are becoming fewer and fewer in the game.
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I heard a previous interview with him where he talks about how he learned a lot from Scott Symon about how to manage.
 
Bear all said:
Must admit I have warmed to Sir Alex over the years no doubt someone will bring the story up about his Wife.
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That story is nonsense. We brought in a better player to replace him. I was a big Fergie fan when he played for us but, if his wife was the reason we got rid, why did he go to Falkirk? If he was as good a player as he thought he was why didn’t he go to Arsenal or Everton or City?
 
bluebeak said:
That story is nonsense. We brought in a better player to replace him. I was a big Fergie fan when he played for us but, if his wife was the reason we got rid, why did he go to Falkirk? If he was as good a player as he thought he was why didn’t he go to Arsenal or Everton or City?
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Back in the day very few players went down south unless they were exceptional.
 
Just watched the documentary about him last night, Never Give In. It's brilliant, in spite of the bits about his time with us. Even if the stuff about his wife is bollocks, I don't even think we come out of it badly at all, it's clear Sir Alex loved us and it speaks to what a massive institution we are. And everyone knows Sir Alex is hardly Mr. Nice Guy, he's more than capable of creating conflict and using grudges and perceived slights to drive himself on to success, which is exactly what seems to have happened in his relationship with us.
 
bluebeak said:
That story is nonsense. We brought in a better player to replace him. I was a big Fergie fan when he played for us but, if his wife was the reason we got rid, why did he go to Falkirk? If he was as good a player as he thought he was why didn’t he go to Arsenal or Everton or City?
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Totally. I'm good friends with someone who was a Rangers player at the same time. Story about his wife is fantasy stuff.
 
Paulski55 said:
We will never see the likes of Ferguson in Football ever again.

Don’t ever let anyone kid you that he doesn’t love Glasgow Rangers either. He bled blue growing up and he still does, deep down inside he bleeds blue.
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I’m not sure though. I mean like it or not, he’s said a lot of things over the years someone who loves Rangers would simply never say. Right down to saying he only wants us to win OF games to wind up his celtic loving son (that fact he ended up supporting that mob probably says enough on its own).

As great as he was, Ferguson is a bitter bastard at times. He even recalled loanees from clubs when his son got the tin tack. It’s not very professional or dignified.
 
Pirlo said:
I’m not sure though. I mean like it or not, he’s said a lot of things over the years someone who loves Rangers would simply never say. Right down to saying he only wants us to win OF games to wind up his celtic loving son (that fact he ended up supporting that mob probably says enough on its own).

As great as he was, Ferguson is a bitter bastard at times. He even recalled loanees from clubs when his son got the tin tack. It’s not very professional or dignified.
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He is still a Rangers fan 100%.
 
bluebeak said:
That story is nonsense. We brought in a better player to replace him. I was a big Fergie fan when he played for us but, if his wife was the reason we got rid, why did he go to Falkirk? If he was as good a player as he thought he was why didn’t he go to Arsenal or Everton or City?
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He was married when he joined us and we knew who the local lad was married to. He seems (according to him) to have got some hassle about his wife from one guy. In the end he left after being frozen out of the team following a Cup final defeat - but better players than him, such as Jim Forrest, were made scapegoats for defeats.
 
Midfield General said:
There is no way I would criticise Fergie he was a good player for Rangers and scored something like 25 goals in 41 games.Hs was hung out to dry in the 69 final which soured his relationship with the Club at that time.
The Club board had previous for hiding their failings by getting rid of players such as Jim Forrest and George McLean.
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Pretty sure John Lawrence wasn’t down to mark big Seizure at corners.
 
I'm not a fan of him, and probably because he was before my time as a Ranger fan I don't really hold any association between him and Rangers; there are ex players who go back decades where this easier, though, because they hold the club in obvious affection. I respect Sir Alex Ferguson, in terms of what he has achieved though; who wouldn't?
 
That angry interview he gave on the pitch at Hampden after the Cup Final with the Rangers fans in the background was one of the greatest displays of support, love and loyalty our fans have ever displayed. Proud to say I was in there.
We outplayed a superior team that day only to succumb to a sucker punch goal. We the fans stayed long after the winning Aberdeen fans had left, to sing long and loud in appreciation of the effort of the team that day.

His job was to mark Billy McNeil at corners. He didn't do it and we were one down to a good team before sweat had been broken. He wouldn't even have been playing if Colin Stein hadn't been suspended. The wife story is bogus and deflection for the fact that he was on his way out at Ibrox following the purchase of Stein from Hibs.
 
Jan Wyck said:
That angry interview he gave on the pitch at Hampden after the Cup Final with the Rangers fans in the background was one of the greatest displays of support, love and loyalty our fans have ever displayed. Proud to say I was in there.
We outplayed a superior team that day only to succumb to a sucker punch goal. We the fans stayed long after the winning Aberdeen fans had left, to sing long and loud in appreciation of the effort of the team that day.

His job was to mark Billy McNeil at corners. He didn't do it and we were one down to a good team before sweat had been broken. He wouldn't even have been playing if Colin Stein hadn't been suspended. The wife story is bogus and deflection for the fact that he was on his way out at Ibrox following the purchase of Stein from Hibs.
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Remember Colin Stein was suspended for enough days (not games in those days) to miss this final by a couple of days i think it was , what i do know is that bitter auld bastard the paedos chairman and head of the sfa at the time the rhat kelly was responsible for this.
 
its_an_extender said:
Can still remember him referring to us as 'that other mob across the city ' when doing a speech at the lisbon lions 50th anniversary dinner.
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There were a bunch of slavering moon howlers booing every time our name was mentioned.

In fairness it was actually Bobby Lennox who was praising us as a great team but the unwashed booed anyway and Ferguson picked up on it and starting calling us a mob.

He's a horrible man. He's not some obsessive Rangers hater but he is certainly no friend. Is bitter about his failings at Ibrox so concocted a story to make us look bad and himself as some sort of Martin Luther King figure.
 
Midfield General said:
There is no way I would criticise Fergie he was a good player for Rangers and scored something like 25 goals in 41 games.Hs was hung out to dry in the 69 final which soured his relationship with the Club at that time.
The Club board had previous for hiding their failings by getting rid of players such as Jim Forrest and George McLean.
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He wasn’t hung out to dry. He simply didn’t follow the manager’s instruction which was for him to mark McNeil at corners. The outcome we all know.

I fancy had any of his players while he was manager of Aberdeen or Man Utd been as negligent in their specifically instructed defensive duties leading to a 4- 0 defeat the outcome for them would have been at least as bad as he got. I fancy he would probably have slaughtered the player in question publicly too.
 
Paulski55 said:
We will never see the likes of Ferguson in Football ever again.

Don’t ever let anyone kid you that he doesn’t love Glasgow Rangers either. He bled blue growing up and he still does, deep down inside he bleeds blue.
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Remember Man Utd players being interviewed in the 90’s saying The Boss was a massive Rangers fan.
 
I was too young to remember SAF as a player, but I never liked him as a Manager at Aberdeen or Man United. Intimidating and harassing refs at press conferences as " giving his team nothing " before important games is the stuff of the Piggery. I just don't like the guy.
 
Jan Wyck said:
That angry interview he gave on the pitch at Hampden after the Cup Final with the Rangers fans in the background was one of the greatest displays of support, love and loyalty our fans have ever displayed. Proud to say I was in there.
We outplayed a superior team that day only to succumb to a sucker punch goal. We the fans stayed long after the winning Aberdeen fans had left, to sing long and loud in appreciation of the effort of the team that day.

His job was to mark Billy McNeil at corners. He didn't do it and we were one down to a good team before sweat had been broken. He wouldn't even have been playing if Colin Stein hadn't been suspended. The wife story is bogus and deflection for the fact that he was on his way out at Ibrox following the purchase of Stein from Hibs.
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I was at Hampden that day and it was only a combination of police and stewards encouraging us to move that eventuallyhad us on our way.

As for Fergie, one day he likes us, the next he doesn't... does it really matter, not really.
My one regret is him turning us down when Greig was shown the door but then would the revolution that Souness brought ever have happened.
 
Fergusons opinion on us changes on by the day and by his audience. His friendship with Walter probably kept him in the good graces of the support in the later years. If he took the job in 83 then theres a chance he'd have never had the success he did elsewhere, but there could have been, as was with United where his force of personality made them successful before being able to spend mega big. We were a basket case at the time, which is why there was only one man loyal enough to take it in Big Jock.
 
bluebeak said:
That story is nonsense. We brought in a better player to replace him. I was a big Fergie fan when he played for us but, if his wife was the reason we got rid, why did he go to Falkirk? If he was as good a player as he thought he was why didn’t he go to Arsenal or Everton or City?
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Every Bear who was around at that time knows that Fergie is talking nonsense with regard to that stuff about his wife's religion. As I have said to many people down through the years, the guy came from Govan at a time when everybody in that area knew just about everybody else and most of their business into the bargain. If anybody believes that the local football club in Govan was unaware of Fergie's personal circumstances before they signed him then they must be extremely gullible. Fergie spun that story a good few years after he left Ibrox. English journalists didn't know any better and were prepared to swallow it. In Scotland, however, the narrative of what was being spun suited some of our journalists up here who were happy to repeat it as gospel without ever checking its veracity. As you have said bluebeak, the reality of the situation was that Fergie (whom I liked) was not as good a player as the guy who replaced him.
 
Rangers lit the fire under his arse that made him the man he is today, and the manager that he became to be honest.

Better or worse, he wanted to prove Rangers wrong, and had perfection in his sights.
 
Blueknows said:
He wasn’t hung out to dry. He simply didn’t follow the manager’s instruction which was for him to mark McNeil at corners. The outcome we all know.

I fancy had any of his players while he was manager of Aberdeen or Man Utd been as negligent in their specifically instructed defensive duties leading to a 4- 0 defeat the outcome for them would have been at least as bad as he got. I fancy he would probably have slaughtered the player in question publicly too.
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Many years ago after the publication of his first autobiography I actually wrote to him to make the very points that you raised in your post. Unsurprisingly I never received a response.
 
I used to work with a woman who was friends with his wife. She (his wife) was working in a sewing factory when he signed for us and seemingly she got a phone call at work from someone at Rangers saying "You can go home. Rangers players wives don't need to work in factories".
 
JayDee said:
He was married when he joined us and we knew who the local lad was married to. He seems (according to him) to have got some hassle about his wife from one guy. In the end he left after being frozen out of the team following a Cup final defeat - but better players than him, such as Jim Forrest, were made scapegoats for defeats.
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When Jim Leighton pawned a goal in the FA Cup Final, Fergie dropped him like a ton of bricks. I sometimes wonder if he ever pondered that decision to drop Leighton against his own circumstances when his particular failure to follow specific instructions from his manager in a cup final cost his team a vital goal in a cup final.
 
Wang said:
Remember Man Utd players being interviewed in the 90’s saying The Boss was a massive Rangers fan.
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He was in the Rangers dressing-room celebrating with Walter and Archie after we beat Leeds at Elland Rd. He was also the first player inducted into the Rangers Former Players Assc. when it was set-up. Ferguson also travelled from Ibrox with the official Rangers party to Glasgow Cathedral for Jim Baxters funeral.
 
Loyal72 said:
Rangers lit the fire under his arse that made him the man he is today, and the manager that he became to be honest.

Better or worse, he wanted to prove Rangers wrong, and had perfection in his sights.
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There is some truth in this. He’s spoken before about realising he’d failed as a player and wouldn’t fail as a manager. I attended a Q & A a few years ago where he said his biggest regret was not being successful at Rangers.
 
Bluefin221 said:
There is some truth in this. He’s spoken before about realising he’d failed as a player and wouldn’t fail as a manager. I attended a Q & A a few years ago where he said his biggest regret was not being successful at Rangers.
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I remember in one of his documentaries he basically said as much, I can't remember verbatim what he said, but it was along the lines of for much of his early career he was driven by this desire and almost hatred to prove Rangers wrong.

Still, I think he has a soft spot for us, regardless of the hard exterior.
 
I dislike him, his management style was very confrontational and often disrespectful to his opponents, even when winning.

Having said that, I would have loved him to manage Rangers, and I respect him for what he achieved in football.
 
When I started looking at our teams before my time, the sixties etc, Ferguson would pop up with a crucial goal. Yeah, he was limited, but his approach to the game imo originates from the corridors of Ibrox.
 
struth 1872 said:
Remember Colin Stein was suspended for enough days (not games in those days) to miss this final by a couple of days i think it was , what i do know is that bitter auld bastard the paedos chairman and head of the sfa at the time the rhat kelly was responsible for this.
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Colin Stein was ambushed by two sleekit mentally challengeds, one who provoked him enough to get him sent off, and one who had influence over the SFA to get him banned long enough to miss the final.
An enemy like no other, indeed.
 
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