Page 105 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

helped Kenny. As a manager your head can go in the sand a bit, especially with a great player. If it
had been a reserve player rather than Suárez, would Kenny have gone to such lengths to defend him?
The New York Times and Boston Globe editorials about the subsequent Evra–Suárez non-
handshake showed the way the debate was going. Kenny’s problem, I feel, was that too many young

people in the club idolised him. Peter Robinson, the club’s chief executive in the glory years, would
have stopped the situation escalating to the degree it did. The club has to take precedence over any
individual.
The next man in, Brendan Rodgers, was only 39. I was surprised they gave it to such a young
coach. A mistake I felt John Henry made in Brendan’s first weeks in charge in June 2012 was to
sanction a fly-on-the wall documentary designed to reveal the intimacies of life at Liverpool. To put
that spotlight on such a young guy was hard and it came across badly. It made no great impact in

America, so I could not work out what the point of it was. My understanding is that the players were
told they were obliged to give the interviews we saw on our screens.
Brendan certainly gave youth a chance, which was admirable. And he achieved a reasonable
response from his squad. I think he knew there had been some sub-standard buys. Henderson and
Downing were among those who would need to prove their credentials. In general you have to give
players you might not rate a chance.

Our rivalry with Liverpool was so intense. Always. Underpinning the animosity, though, was
mutual respect. I was proud of my club the day we marked the publication of the Hillsborough report
in 2012: a momentous week for Liverpool and those who had fought for justice. Whatever Liverpool
asked for in terms of commemoration, we agreed to, and our hosts made plain their appreciation for
our efforts.
I told my players that day – no provocative goal celebrations, and if you foul a Liverpool player,
pick him up. Mark Halsey, the referee, struck the right note with his marshalling of the game. Before

the kick-off, Bobby Charlton emerged with a wreath which he presented to Ian Rush, who laid it at the
Hillsborough Memorial by the Shankly Gates. The wreath was composed of 96 roses, one for each
Liverpool supporter who died at Hillsborough. Originally, Liverpool wanted me and Ian Rush to
perform that ceremony, but I thought Bobby was a more appropriate choice. The day went well,
despite some minor slanging at the end by a tiny minority.
For Liverpool to return to the level of us and Manchester City was clearly going to require huge

investment. The stadium was another inhibiting factor. The club’s American owners elected to
refurbish Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, rather than build a new arena. To construct a
major stadium these days is perhaps a £700 million enterprise. Anfield has not moved on. Even the
dressing rooms are the same as 20 years ago. At the same time, my reading of their squad was that
they needed eight players to come up to title-winning standard. And if you have made mistakes in the
transfer market, you often end up giving those players away for very little.
While Brendan Rodgers went about his work, Rafa Benítez and I had not seen the last of one

another. He returned to English football as Chelsea’s interim manager when Roberto Di Matteo, who
had won the Champions League in May, was sacked in the autumn of 2012. In a United press
conference soon after Benítez’s unveiling, I made the point that he was fortunate to inherit ready-made
sides.
I felt his record needed placing in context. He won the Spanish League with 51 goals, in 2001–02,
which suggested he was a skilled pragmatist. But I found Liverpool hard to watch when he was

manager there. I found them dull. It was a surprise to me that Chelsea called him. When Benítez
placed his record alongside Di Matteo’s, it would have been two League titles with Valencia, a