Page 141 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

twenty-two

BACK in the sanctuary of our home, Cathy said, ‘That was the worst day of my life. I can’t take much
more of this.’ The afternoon of Sunday 13 May 2012 was crushing. To neutrals it was the most
thrilling end to a Premier League title race in history. For us there was only the painful knowledge
that we had thrown away a commanding lead. We had broken the Man United rule of not surrendering
a position of power. Manchester City were England’s champions.

I felt pretty ragged myself, but I could see the distress in my wife. ‘Cathy,’ I began, ‘we have a
great life, and we’ve had a fantastic period of success.’
‘I know,’ she said, ‘but I’m not going out. There are too many City fans in the village.’
Sometimes you forget that setbacks can affect your family more than you. My three sons grew used
to the cycle of triumph and disaster. The grandchildren were too young to understand it. Naturally it
was worse this time because Man City were the ones celebrating at our expense. And worse, because
we’d had the League in our grasp and thrown it away. Of all the setbacks I endured, nothing compared
to losing the League to City.

I had faced 14 Man City managers since 1986, starting with Jimmy Frizzell. Finally a manager from
across town had beaten me to the line in a title race. A year later, Roberto Mancini became the 14th
City manager to lose or leave the job before I stood down. Roberto went after the FA Cup final defeat
by Wigan Athletic in May 2013. By then we were League champions again, for the 20th time. We had
turned the tables on City. But I would not be taking them on again.

At the start of the 2011–12 campaign, I felt it was between us, City and Chelsea. After a really
good start, one of our best, I found myself having to change the team a lot to accommodate injuries.
Our 8–2 victory over Arsenal was their heaviest defeat since 1896, when they lost 8–0 to
Loughborough Town. It could have been 20. It actually reached the point where I felt – please, no
more goals. It was a humiliation for Arsène. The climate at Arsenal was hardly serene to begin with.
But we played some fantastic football that day. With the missed chances on either side, it might have
been 12–4 or 12–5.

Arsenal played a young boy in midfield; I had hardly heard of him – Francis Coquelin – and he
barely played again. He was completely out of his depth. The player who really disappointed me that
day was Arshavin, who could have been sent off for two terrible tackles, over the top of the ball.
There had been a change in Arshavin. You make a mental note when a player who usually gets
whacked by everybody else turns it round and starts hunting down opponents. His behaviour shocked
me. Arshavin contributed nothing to that game. It’s disappointing, even as an opposing manager, to see

this. Eventually Arsène took him off and sent on a younger replacement. They had players missing,
obviously, and were not the same without Fàbregas and Nasri.
For that reason I had discounted Arsenal as title challengers. For me, Per Mertesacker, the centre-