Page 110 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

Meanwhile Mr Warnock accuses us of throwing the game away. In their last game they faced
Wigan at home and all they needed was a draw. In early January, Warnock had let David Unsworth go
on a free transfer to Wigan, and Unsworth takes the penalty kick that knocks Sheffield United out of
the Premier League. Could anyone with an open mind not say: I made a mess of that, there? Has he

ever looked at himself in the mirror and said, ‘All we needed was a draw at home and we weren’t
good enough to take a point off Wigan?’ The accusation was ridiculous.
In January 2007 we acquired a real aristocrat – for a two-month spell, at any rate. Louis Saha had
returned at the start of the season full of promise but picked up another injury. In October Jim Lawlor,
United’s chief scout, pointed out to us that it was a waste for Henrik Larsson to be playing in Sweden
when he still had so much to offer on a bigger stage. Helsingborgs, where Henrik was playing, would
not sell him, but I asked Jim to ask their chairman what they would think about him coming on loan in

January. Henrik pushed the boat in that direction with his employers.
On arrival at United, he seemed a bit of a cult figure with our players. They would say his name in
awed tones. For a man of 35 years of age, his receptiveness to information on the coaching side was
amazing. At every session he was rapt. He wanted to listen to Carlos, the tactics lectures; he was into
every nuance of what we did.
In training he was superb: his movement, his positional play. His three goals for us were no

measure of his contribution. In his last game in our colours at Middlesbrough, we were winning 2–1
and Henrik went back to play in midfield and ran his balls off. On his return to the dressing room, all
the players stood up and applauded him, and the staff joined in. It takes some player to make that kind
of impact in two months. Cult status can vanish in two minutes if a player isn’t doing his job, yet
Henrik retained that aura in his time with us. He looked a natural Man United player, with his
movement and courage. He also had a great spring for a little lad.
I could have signed him earlier. I was ready to make the bid when he was at Celtic but Dermot

Desmond, Celtic’s majority shareholder, rang me and said, ‘You’ve let me down, Alex, you’ve got
tons of players, we need him.’
A month after Henrik went back to Sweden, we registered one of our greatest European victories:
the 7–1 win over Roma on 10 April, our highest Champions League score. There were two goals each
for Michael Carrick and Ronaldo, one from Rooney, Alan Smith and even Patrice Evra, who scored
for the first time in Europe.

Top games of football are generally won by eight players. Three players can be carried if they’re
having an off night and work their socks off, or are playing a purely tactical role for the team in order
to secure the result. But half a dozen times in your career you achieve perfection where all 11 are on
song.
Everything we did that night came off. For the second goal we produced a six-man move of one-
touch passing. Alan Smith scored from a Ryan Giggs pass between the two centre-backs. First time –
bang, in the net. Brilliant goal. So you have these moments when you say: we could not have

improved on that.
I remember taking a team to Nottingham Forest in 1999 and winning 8–1. It could have been 20.
Roma were a bloody good side too. They had Daniele De Rossi, Cristian Chivu and Francesco Totti,
and we absolutely slaughtered them. We had been beaten 2–1 in Rome, where Scholes had been sent
off for a suicidal tackle right on the touchline. The boy was practically off the pitch when Paul arrived
with his challenge. So we were under some pressure in the return leg. Until the goals started flying in.

Wimbledon away in the FA Cup in February 1994 was another classic. In a 3–0 win we scored one
goal with 38 passes. People talk of the best Man United goal being Ryan Giggs’ in that FA Cup semi-