Page 142 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

back, wasn’t a major signing. We’ve seen plenty of that type of player in Germany over the years. I
didn’t think he would be a handicap, but nor did I believe he would lift Arsenal to a higher tier. They
needed players who could directly influence their performances and results.
I saw this theme developing in Arsenal’s transfer trading. We watched Marouane Chamakh, the

Arsenal striker, at Bordeaux. We had good scouts in France but they never rated him. Olivier Giroud
was another purchase. Arsène seemed willing to buy French players of that standard and I felt he
might be overestimating French football.
After the 8–2 win over Arsenal came the farce of a 6–1 home defeat to City. We battered them for
40 minutes in that game. Absolutely battered them. We should have been three or four up. The referee
allowed Micah Richards to boot lumps out of Ashley Young, overlooking five fouls in a row. At half-
time we were really controlling the game. Then we had a man sent off just after the break. If you

watch it again, Mario Balotelli pulls Jonny Evans first, but our centre-back then brought him down
and was dismissed.
So at 2–0 down I made a change and brought on Phil Jones, who kept flying forward. We dragged it
back to 3–1 and the crowd went crazy. A famous comeback was on the cards. Fletcher had scored a
wonderful goal, so we began attacking, and then conceded three goals in the last seven minutes.
Suicide.

It looked humiliating but it was actually self-annihilation. There was never a point in the game
when City looked a superior side to us. At 3–0 up they were in a comfort zone, that’s fair to say, but
they were not playing a style of football that was tearing us apart.
The last passage of play was a disgrace. It was comedy. And it led me to lean on Rio Ferdinand not
to gamble any longer with his pace, which had declined. At his quickest, Rio would show the attacker
where to knock the ball and then take it off him. Now he was trying that with David Silva and wasn’t
able to beat him in the sprint. That game was a watershed for Rio.

De Gea was shell-shocked. Six goals flew past him and he didn’t have a hand in any of them. We
also lost Welbeck, who was becoming a useful asset for us.
After the final whistle, I informed the players they had disgraced themselves. Then we set about
fixing our attention on the defensive part of the team. There was a leak in there that we needed to
correct. That remedial work led us into a period of stability where we were strong at the back. We
worked on players coming back into the right positions, on concentration and on taking the defending

more seriously.
We fell nine points behind Man City with that 6–1 defeat, but by New Year’s Day the gap was
down to three points. Losing to Blackburn Rovers at home was a real shocker, especially as it
coincided with my 70th birthday, though that was nothing new to me. On my 50th we were beaten 4–1
by Queens Park Rangers. I’d suspended Evans, Gibson and Rooney for having a big night out and
turning up for training dishevelled. Carrick and Giggs were injured. All of which forced me to play
Rafael and Ji-Sung Park in the middle of the pitch. Blackburn played well that day. We pulled it back

to 2–2 and they received a corner kick, which De Gea didn’t handle properly, and Grant Hanley
grabbed the winner.
In the meantime, United managed to name a stand after me without me knowing anything about it.
When I walked onto the pitch, the two teams lined up to mark my 25 years as United manager, which
was really nice. The Sunderland players, O’Shea, Brown, Bardsley and Richardson, all former
United men, were smiling broadly and very appreciative. I felt proud of that. I was told to walk to the

centre circle to meet David Gill, who had an object at his feet. I assumed he was going to make a
presentation to me. But as I reached him, David turned me towards the South Stand. Apparently only