Sir Alex: The Beginning

One quarter of a century ago today, Manchester United Football Club - and with it, the shape of the game in England - began to change forever.

In November 1986, United was a club skulking in its own shadow. Fresh from a 4-1 defeat at Southampton, the Reds languished in the top flight’s relegation zone a year after being apparent title certainties.

With the club’s demands of excellence scarcely realised since Sir Matt Busby’s departure, the United board recognised the time for action had again arrived. In five years at the helm, Ron Atkinson had won two FA Cups and had never finished below fourth in the league. However, his inability to top second spot was to prove his undoing.

Atkinson was relieved of his role, but the board knew his replacement faced mounting pressure and diminishing patience to rediscover past glories. There was only one man for the job.

“Taking over a club of Manchester United’s magnitude is an awesome task,” said Alex Ferguson in his very first matchday programme notes. “I am not really interested in what has happened here in the past.

“I don’t mean any disrespect to the great achievements of Manchester United over the years. It’s simply that there is now only one way to go, and that is forward. The aim at this club must clearly be to win the championship. That is the only real way to lay the ghosts of the past. I am going to love every minute of it here.”

Alex's prediction that he would revel in his new post proved, of course, to be spot on. Long may that continue.