Page 139 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

who takes the blame for those rocky moments. In the decisive Premier League game against City at the
Etihad Stadium the following April, Jones blocked him in and stopped him getting out to deal with the
corner kick that led to Kompany’s goal. There was progress to be made on that front. As the season
wore on, though, he was more and more effective and self-assured. Some of his saves were

miraculous. Our instincts were correct all along. He was one of the world’s best young keepers and
we were proud to have him with us, where he could develop as so many others had before. At Real
Madrid, in the first leg of our Champions League round of 16 tie in February 2013, he saved
brilliantly from Ronaldo, Fábio Coentrão and Sami Khedira.
David couldn’t speak the language and he had to learn to drive, another illustration of how young
he was. It could never be easy for a goalkeeper coming to England from Continental Europe at 20
years of age. If you recall the big goalkeeping moves of the last two decades or so, Buffon was

outstanding from the moment he arrived at Juventus as a teenager. But very few who have made a
move on the scale of De Gea going to United have clicked straight away. We always looked to invest
in the future, though. He will be one of the very best and I was delighted when he was named in the
PFA team of the year in my last season.
Jones was unfortunate in that 2011–12 season in sustaining a succession of niggling injuries. Young
could look back on an encouraging season in which he scored eight goals. For a winger, that’s not

bad. He can draw on a good understanding of the game and a high stamina level. With an extra half-
yard of pace, his arsenal would have been complete, but his speed was hardly deficient, and he
developed a knack of slipping inside on to his right foot – his strongest foot – and delivering from
there. He was excellent through the middle as well, but we were blessed with many options in that
area of that field. I was very pleased with Ashley, though. He was a quiet boy and a good trainer. The
three of them – Jones, Young and De Gea – were good sorts.
Briefly the idea was mooted of an England comeback for Paul Scholes, but it was never a serious

possibility. Paul would tire at the end of games in his later years because he was not born with the
genes of Ryan Giggs, and he had little interest in playing international football again. Scholesy still
offered us a tempo and a platform for our game when he returned in January 2012. There was nobody
better in the rhythm section of our team. In fairness, the FA came to accept Paul’s aversion to being
recalled. Fabio Capello’s assistant approached him before the 2010 World Cup but there was no
approach ahead of Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

Michael Carrick was another interesting case study. No England manager appeared to regard him
as a starting midfield player. Michael grew up sitting on the England bench and he had no desire to
spend all summer in that observer’s role at Euro 2012. As it turned out, he took the opportunity to
clear out his Achilles.
Michael’s handicap was, I feel, that he lacked the bravado of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard.
Lampard, for me, was a marvellous servant for Chelsea, but I didn’t think of him as an elite
international footballer. And I am one of the few who felt Gerrard was not a top, top player. When

Scholes and Keane were in our team, Gerrard seldom had a kick against us. With England, Michael
Carrick suffered in the shadow of those two big personalities.
Playing Lampard and Gerrard was a nightmare for England managers because they were
incompatible in a 4–4–2 formation. The team functioned better with Hargreaves in central midfield, in
2006. By the bye, in the World Cup quarter-final against Portugal in 2006, which England lost, I told
Steve McClaren that he and Eriksson should have had the players celebrating and buoyant after getting

to penalties with 10 men, following Rooney’s dismissal. A sense of achievement against the odds
should have taken hold among Eriksson’s penalty takers. Little things like that count. It would have