Page 140 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

lifted England’s players.
I had some strange dealings on the England front. After Capello resigned, the FA wrote to me to ask
me not to talk about the England manager’s job. At the time, everyone was touting Harry Redknapp as
the probable successor, and all I did was endorse the popular view that Harry would be ideally

suited to the role. I don’t know why they jumped on me that way. Clearly they had it in mind that
Harry was not going to be the next England manager, even though everyone assumed he would.
I was offered the England job on two occasions. Adam Crozier, chief executive of the FA from
2000 to 2002, came to see me before Eriksson was appointed in 2001. The first time was before that,
when Martin Edwards was chairman, around the time Kevin Keegan took the reins in 1999.
There was no way I could contemplate taking the England job. Can you imagine me doing that? A
Scotsman? I always joked that I would take the position and relegate them: make them the 150th rated

country in the world, with Scotland 149.
The England job requires a particular talent – and that skill is the ability to handle the press. Steve
McClaren made the mistake of trying to be pally with one or two. If you cut 90 per cent out, the others
are after your body. If one person gives you favourable coverage, the others will hound you. No, it
wasn’t a bed of nails I was ever tempted to lie on.