Page 119 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

knows what it was. ‘I can’t even offer you a glass of champagne,’ I apologised to Andy Roxburgh,
who came into our dressing room to congratulate us. Whatever was in those bottles, we shook it about
and made a fuss. There was a lot of hilarity and nonsense, with the players giving each other stick.
You’re pleased and proud of them. I was soaked to the skin from the rain, and forced to change into

my tracksuit. There was no sign of Abramovich and I don’t recall any Chelsea players coming in.
The 1999 final in Barcelona, when we beat Bayern Munich, fell on the late Sir Matt Busby’s
birthday. Sometimes you hope the gods are with you, or that old Matt is looking down. I’m not a great
believer in coincidences, but there is such a thing as fate, and I wondered whether it played a hand in
both victories. Matt had taken our club into Europe when the English League was firmly set against it.
Matt was shown to be right because English football has had some glorious nights in Europe.
With a major trophy in your possession, you should always buy players to refresh the squad and

avoid the risk of stagnation. It was in the weeks after Moscow that we added Dimitar Berbatov to our
squad. Berbatov had been on our target list before he moved to Spurs. He had talent in abundance:
good balance, composure on the ball and a fine scoring record. He was a good age, tall, athletic. I felt
we needed a bit more composure in the last third of the field, the attacking third.
But it ended up as a scrap with Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, which left us reluctant to
return to Spurs for players. This was our second trip on the Big Dipper following our move for

Michael Carrick. You come off dizzy. You can’t discuss both sides of the issue with Daniel. It’s about
him, and Tottenham, nothing more, which is no bad thing from his club’s perspective.