Page 146 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

of 24 to 28. Most of them were at their peak, which, in theory, gave him two to three years with that
squad.
Tactically you saw his Italian instincts. As soon as City went in front, he would often play five at
the back. He had that defensive mentality: give nothing away. That costs you some games.

Goal difference was still a factor, though. In our two remaining games, against Swansea and
Sunderland, we attempted to close the gap. Against Swansea, Smalling and Giggs missed chances.
We could have gone in at half-time five up. We only scored one in the second half, in which Rooney
and Cleverley both missed sitters. If we had won 5–0, we would have been five goals adrift. In the
Sunderland game, their goalkeeper was out of this world. Simon Mignolet. His saves were
incredible. We hit the post twice, Rooney hit the bar; we could have won 8–0. What a way that would
have been to win the League: on goal difference.

In the event, Rooney’s 34th goal of the season from a Valencia cross was our only mark on the
scoreboard. Our fans were wonderful. I kept looking at the young boy from Sky, and he was saying it
was still 2–1 at City. How long to go? Five minutes added time. But I knew. City scored twice in 125
seconds, through Džeko and Agüero. Džeko’s was timed at 91minutes 15 seconds, then Agüero went
right through QPR’s defence, exchanging passes with Mario Balotelli, and struck the shot that won
them the title for the first time in 44 years. The clock showed 93 minutes 20 seconds.

We were champions for 30 seconds. When our whistle blew we were champions. In fairness to our
players, they knew they had ballsed it up. There were no excuses.
I told them, ‘You walk out of that door with your heads up. You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.
Don’t show any weakness.’ They understood that message. Their interviews were all positive. I did
what I had to do: congratulate City. I had no problem with that.
There is no point torturing yourself over what might have been in the City–QPR game. In my career
at Manchester United we came back time and time again and we would do it again. The question in

my mind that summer was: would City get better? They had the confidence from winning the League;
there were no boys in their team and they were a very experienced side, in that mid-twenties range.
Money was not an object, but the size of the playing staff and the wage bill were, in the context of the
Financial Fair Play regulations. I asked of us: could we get through the following campaign with a
better injury record?
There was a young Paul Scholes missing from our team. We needed that kind of playmaking

influence. People spoke about Modrić but we were reluctant to deal with Spurs after the Berbatov
carry-on.
Rafael was developing into a really, really good player, but he made mistakes. Some players can
never stop making mistakes, it’s hereditary, but others learn by them. Rafael was sent off against
Bayern Munich and then improved his disciplinary record dramatically. He’s such a competitive boy,
quick and aggressive, and he believes in himself. He has a really positive attitude to the game. One
thing we lacked was cover at left-back, where Patrice Evra had been averaging 48–50 games a

season. We needed to fill that breach.
I said in a press conference, to our fans: you’d better get used to this, because we’re going to be
seeing a lot of this new Man City. There will be a lot of games between us and they will all be like
this. I would love to have been in their Champions League group the following term, because it would
have made us alive to it. For the 2012–13 campaign, I resolved to leave no man behind and take the
group stage much more seriously, to win the group.

Before the final round of Premier League games, Mick Phelan and I had been to Germany to see the
German cup final, to watch Shinji Kagawa, Robert Lewandowski and Mats Hummels and I had told