Page 101 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

With Diouf there was a talent but it needed nurturing. He was a persistent thorn in your flesh, and
not always in a nice way. He’d be silly on the pitch, but he had a right competitive edge about him,
and he had ability. Joining an august club like Liverpool was not compatible with his rebellious side
because he found it hard to conform to the discipline you need to be successful. Gérard soon found

that out. With the number of high-intensity games you are going to play against Arsenal and Chelsea,
you need players of a good temperament. And, in my opinion, Diouf had a dodgy one. Cheyrou just
never made it. He didn’t have the pace to play in the Premier League.
The Spice Boy culture was another dragon Gérard had to slay. I would hear stories of Liverpool
players nipping across to Dublin for recreation. I felt that Stan Collymore’s arrival was hardly
conducive to stability. I nearly bought Collymore myself because there was an incredible talent. But
when I watched him play for Liverpool, there was no great urgency about him, and I began to think

what a lucky guy I had been for not buying him. I can only assume he would have been the same at
United. Instead I took Andy Cole, who was always brave as a lion and always gave his best.
Before the upswing under Houllier, Liverpool had fallen into the trap that had caught United years
before. They would buy players to fit a jigsaw. If you look at Man United from the mid-1970s to the
mid-1980s, they were buying players such as Garry Birtles, Arthur Graham from Leeds United, Peter
Davenport, Terry Gibson, Alan Brazil: there seemed to be a desperation. If someone scored against

United they would be signed: it was that kind of short-term thinking. Liverpool acquired the same
habit. Ronny Rosenthal, David Speedie, Jimmy Carter. A succession of players arrived who weren’t
readily identifiable as Liverpool players. Collymore, Phil Babb, Neil Ruddock, Mark Wright, Julian
Dicks.
Gérard bought a wide mix of players to Anfield: Milan Baroš, Luis García, Šmicer and Hamann,
who did a fine job for him. I could see a pattern emerging in Gérard’s recruiting. Under Benítez I
could observe no such strategy. Players came and went. There was a time when I looked at his first

XI and felt they were the most unimaginative Liverpool side I ever went up against. In one game
against us, he played Javier Mascherano in central midfield and had his back four, as usual, but
played Steven Gerrard wide left, with Alberto Aquilani off the front. He took Dirk Kuyt off and put
Ryan Babel on the left, moving Gerrard to the right. The three played in a pack through the middle.
Babel was on as an outside-left but not once did he work the touchline. I can’t know what his orders
were, but on the bench I remember saying it was a good time to bring him on, wide left, against Gary

Neville. I told Scholes: warn Gary to concentrate. But Liverpool played with hardly any width at all.
Apparently Benítez came to our training ground as a guest of Steve McClaren, but I don’t remember
meeting him. We received lots of visits from overseas coaches and it was hard to keep track of them
all. We had people from China and Malta and groups of three and four from Scandinavian countries.
There was also a steady flow of other sportsmen: the Australia cricket team, NBA players, Michael
Johnson, Usain Bolt. Johnson, who runs a spring training programme in Texas, impressed me with his
knowledge.

Soon after Benítez arrived, I attended a Liverpool game and he and his wife invited me in for a
drink. So far, so good. But our relationship frayed. The mistake he made was to turn our rivalry
personal. Once you made it personal, you had no chance, because I could wait. I had success on my
side. Benítez was striving for trophies while also taking me on. That was unwise.
On the day he produced his famous list of ‘facts’ detailing my influence over referees, we received
a tip-off that Liverpool would stage-manage a question that would enable Benítez to go on the attack.

That’s not unusual in football. I had been known to plant a question myself. Put it this way, our press
office had warned me, ‘We think Benítez is going to have a go at you today.’